Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said the government will revise the country’s constitution later this year, which could take between 12 and 18 months to refine.
During his regular interview slot on Kossuth Radio, the prime minister said discussions about the changes to the 2011 constitution would start in September.
“In the autumn we would like to launch a one to one-and-a-half year-long constitution revision where we will look at what has worked and what could have worked ... and find potential gaps which we need to fill in with new constitutional text,” the prime minister said.
Last week, we revealed how the head of the Prime Minister’s Office stressed that Hungary must be protected from illegal migration via a constitutional change.
Gergely Gulyás said the government’s related proposals to change the constitution and enact the “Stop Soros” law will help protect Hungary.
Gulyás added that the standpoint of the United Nations and European Union was very different from the Hungarian government’s, relating to the position of organizations that support migration. “There is no common position on illegal migration in Europe,” he said.
He said the government’s view is that migrants do not have the right to choose which country to live in. The first safe country that grants them asylum is where they should stay, he added.
He pointed out that during the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s, Hungary, as the first safe country, provided home to tens of thousands of real refugees.
Criminalizing illegal migration deprives smugglers of their means and prevents illegal migration, Gulyás added.