Hungary – Interviewed on Radio Kossuth on Friday 10 November, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán used a shocking phrase to underline Hungary’s rejection of the European Migration Pact.

A European pact designed to normalise migration for the long term

According to the European authorities, “The New Pact on Migration and Asylum is a set of regulations and policies to create a fairer, efficient, and more sustainable migration and asylum process for the European Union, […] designed to manage and normalise migration for the long term, providing certainty, clarity and decent conditions for people arriving in the EU.”

“Preventing the creation of migrant ghettos”

The head of the Hungarian government puts it another way: „Migration and terrorism go hand in hand. […] We currently have a way of preventing the creation of migrant ghettos in Hungary.” And referring directly to the massacres perpetrated a month earlier by Palestinian Hamas terrorists in towns in southern Israel, he added: “We don’t want mini-Gazas in the districts of Budapest…”

Brussels leaders have been „captured by a globalist elite”

For the Hungarian Prime Minister, „the EU was created to ensure peace and prosperity in Europe”, but now the Brussels leaders have been „captured by a globalist elite, financial groups” and „their decisions are motivated by the interests of these groups. This is not in the interests of Hungarians, Germans, French or Italians. […] We need to bring about a change in the world of Brussels bureaucrats”.

Referring also to the situation in neighbouring Ukraine, Viktor Orbán said: „The war between Russia and Ukraine is destroying Europe. […] What Europe is doing is unsustainable, which is why the Hungarian government did not support the sending of arms, nor the sending of Hungarian taxpayers’ money to Ukraine. […] As long as there is a [Hungarian] national government, Hungarian taxpayers’ money will not fund the Ukrainian state and the war between Russia and Ukraine.”

“Ukraine is as far from EU membership as Makó from Jerusalem”

Viktor Orbán also added that „negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU should not be launched, because Ukraine is in no way ready to negotiate with the ambition of joining the European Union. I could also say that Ukraine is as far from EU membership as Makó [a town in south-east Hungary] is from Jerusalem. […] I would like to make it very clear that Hungary’s rejection of Ukraine’s membership of the European Union and the opening of negotiations is not a matter for negotiation. It cannot be linked to any financial issue. What they owe must be given here. [the Ukrainian issue] cannot be linked to the issue of the money owed to Hungary. […] The debate on the latter will happen in 2024, but we need new leadership in Brussels to succeed in this area.”