I thank President Vučić for the cooperation we have developed in recent years to jointly
protect Europe from increasing migration pressure. Without Serbia and Hungary, today there
would be many hundreds of thousands more illegal migrants in Austria, Germany and the
Netherlands than there are. So I thank the President for his cooperation. I would also like to
thank the Chancellor for standing by Hungary at the last European Council meeting in
Brussels, and for trying to help us. At that Council meeting I tried to explain that there are
solutions that are good at sea, but the same solutions will be bad on land. Few people
understood this sophisticated approach, but your Chancellor made it clear that this is the case;
he tried to help, and it was not his fault that he was not successful.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Hungary is a country in a special situation. There is a war in our eastern neighbor Ukraine,
and the busiest migrant route crosses our southern border. No other country is in the same
difficult situation. We are not only protecting Hungary from illegal immigrants, but we are
protecting the whole of Europe – including Austria. Last year a total of 330,000 illegal
migrants were stopped along the entire length of Europe's borders, of which 270,000 were
stopped at the Hungarian-Serbian border. I imagine that you sense the weight of these
numbers. If we were not doing what we are doing, you would be in big trouble. The
Hungarian model, which is effective, is based on a very simple idea: no one is allowed to
enter Hungary until their asylum application has been assessed. They can only enter if their
application has been accepted, and until then they cannot enter the country's territory. This is
the Hungarian model, it works, and I believe that it should be adopted by all the countries of
the European Union. Unfortunately, this is not what is happening. Now a regulation has been
adopted in Brussels which prescribes mandatory quotas and makes it obligatory for Member
States to construct refugee camps and migrant ghettos. This is not only bad for Hungary,
Ladies and Gentlemen, but also for you Austrians. The new legislation may help Italy, but it
would certainly make things worse for you in terms of migrant flow from Hungary, because
we would have to replace an effective Hungarian model with a new European model that is
clearly not working. But I would like to inform you that we shall not implement these
decisions of the European Union. We shall not accept the mandatory quota. Nor shall we
accept the obligation to build migrant ghettos and camps. We shall find a legal and political
way to ensure that Hungary does not implement the latest decision from Brussels. The
situation is sad, but Hungary must defend itself not only against illegal migrants and people
smugglers, but also against Brussels. And we shall do so.
Thank you very much for your attention.