Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó has said that comments by Luxembourg’s foreign minister Jean Asselborn relating to the Prime Minister of Hungary and the Hungarian migration policy are “unacceptable and shameful”.

In a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to Hungarian news agency MTI on Tuesday, Mr. Szijjártó reacted to comments by Mr. Asselborn which were critical of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Hungarian migration policy. Referring to next Tuesday’s meeting between Mr. Orbán and former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Mr. Asselborn said that it is mysterious as to why such a real European as Helmut Kohl should be receiving “such dubious figures”. He added that if Germany had reacted in a Hungarian way, with “barbed wire and batons”, the European Union would have fallen apart. In the same interview Mr. Asselborn praised Germany’s migration policy.

In his statement, Mr. Szijjártó stressed that the Hungarian people have elected the Hungarian government and the Prime Minister twice in a row with decisive majorities, and therefore Mr. Asselborn should respect the decision of the Hungarian electorate.

He said that from the beginning of the illegal migration crisis Hungary has taken the same standpoint: external borders must be protected, rules must be adhered to, and uncontrolled masses of people must not cross through Europe. He added that now “former critics of Hungary admit that the Hungarian solution is working”, and the EU is now focusing on the protection of external borders.

The Minister said that pursuing Mr. Asselborn’s policy for handling illegal migration would result in unforeseeable repercussions: “the terror threat would increase, public safety would weaken, and there would be arbitrary, confused situations instead of adherence to rules”.

“We call on Mr. Asselborn to stop agitating against adherence to European regulations”, the statement reads.

(MTI)