Next year’s EP elections will be crucial both for Hungary and Europe, Antal Rogán, the Prime Minister’s cabinet chief stated in an interview published in the Thursday issue of the newspaper Magyar Hírlap.

Mr Rogán said there are international circles which believe it is of the utmost significance whether there will be a pro-immigration majority in the European Parliament again, or this will change within a short time.

“George Soros and his circles are doing everything they can to maintain the balance of power” in the EP. Therefore, “they are attacking countries which are firmly anti-immigration with every means at their disposal”, he said.

Mr Rogán pointed out that the campaign against Hungary will continue also during the coming months.

They want to discredit countries which have taken firm action against immigration.

“This is what Ms Sargentini – who is an old, reliable ally of George Soros – is doing as well”, he said, stressing that this is what can be changed in next May’s EP elections.

Mr Rogán said: “The more of us say no to immigration in the whole of Europe, the less George Soros will be able to push his script through”.

Regarding the demonstrations against the amendment of the Labour Code, he said it only serves as an excuse. If this issue had not emerged, “perhaps, there would be disturbances inside and outside Parliament due to the administrative courts”.

Mr Rogán pointed out that administrative courts will have the authority to decide on asylum issues.

It is no coincidence that these are now being attacked by institutions in Europe which are pro-immigration. They are doing so despite the fact that there are such courts in most European countries, and there were such courts also in Hungary “before the communists came into power”, he said.

The politician also highlighted that there is room for demonstrations in democracy, and they support them if they are held amidst peaceful circumstances.

However, in the past few days this has not been the case; “we have observed positively violent and aggressive groups that attacked the police”, he said, noting that many of those who were taken into custody had criminal records.

This also shows that the intentions and goals of these demonstrations were far from peaceful. There is an important difference, however. In countries, from France to Belgium, where the incumbent pro-immigration party governments responded with violence to the demonstrations organised against them, the press is full of photos of demonstrators whose heads were smashed in, who are covered in blood and who sustained serious injuries. Images of students who were made to kneel down in front of a wall as was customary in Ceausescu’s Romania. There are no such images in Hungary: over here the demonstrators were aggressive, they were the ones who attacked the police. Only police officers were injured, quite a few of them at that, he said.

Mr Rogán highlighted that the police deserve gratitude for managing the “demonstrations that often verged on illegality” with such patience and calm.

Regarding the fact that, according to opposition politicians, the vote on the legislative amendment in Parliament was not regular as MPs were allowed to cast their votes without voting cards, Mr Rogán said the opposition parties “are very much mistaken as it is not the voting cards that vote, but Members of Parliament”.

The house rules clearly lay down that the exercise of the voting right is subject to the MP’s personal presence, and is tied to the MP’s designated seat in Parliament, he pointed out.

Everyone was able to cast their own votes from their designated seats in Parliament. The cards are not required. Also earlier, there were several votes in Parliament without the use of the voting cards, Mr Rogán said, also observing that the house rules had to be clarified to avoid all possible misunderstandings for the very reason that “once before, five years ago, Jobbik already tried to play this splendid trick which the entire opposition now wanted to resort to once again”.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)