“Hungary is putting forward rational arguments when it insists on restricting immigration” Government Spokesperson Zoltán Kovács wrote in a letter to British magazine, The Economist.

In an article printed in the Letters to the Editor section of the online edition of the weekly magazine, the Government Spokesperson reacted to the fact that according to a video posted to The Economist’s Facebook page under the title “How to Dismantle Democracy”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán warned: “Muslim migrants will destroy Hungary”. According to Mr. Kovács, the post suggests that the Hungarian Prime Minister belongs to a group of autocrats who are undermining democracy.

According to the Government Spokesperson’s letter, Mr. Orbán in fact said that “migration poses a threat to Europe’s public safety, welfare and Christian culture” and cautioned that “we shouldn’t forget that the people who are coming here grew up in a different religion and represent a completely different culture.”

“After a century that saw two world wars that wrought catastrophic damage, and a half century of communism that attempted to erase our national identity, Hungary makes no apology for putting cultural preservation among our top priorities”, Mr. Kovács’s letter reads.

The Government Spokesperson recalled that at the peak of the crisis in 2015, some 400,000 migrants crossed the border of Hungary into the EU, basically all of them illegally. Before we erected the fence on the southern frontier of Europe, the illegal immigration across that border was out of control and the citizens of Hungary, like many citizens of Europe, wanted it stopped.

According to Mr. Kovács, for precisely this reason it is “more than ironic” that The Economist would use this example to associate the Hungarian Prime Minister with autocrats dismantling democracy. Our parliamentary elections in April were a de facto referendum on this government’s immigration policy, and the results gave the ruling coalition another two-thirds majority amid the highest voter turnout since 2002.

“Our tough stance on immigration reflects the will of our citizens. The same cannot be said for all those who continue to push for more migration”, the Government Spokesperson’s letter concludes.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)