“We must expect permanent and continuously increasing migration pressure”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Friday in Budapest. The Minister issued a statement to reporters following his annual hearing before Parliament’s National Security Committee.

The Minister said the security of the Western Balkans is a priority area. “98 thousand illegal immigrants have accumulated in the Western Balkans, and this also represents a risk to Central Europe. In addition, 398 thousand illegal border crossing attempts have been reported by Turkey until mid-November, which is 128 thousand more than during the whole of last year. The number of immigrants in Turkey has increased to 4 million, and the 40 billion dollars that Turkey has spent so far on the migrants I beginning to become a domestic policy issue. Accordingly, the possibility that Turkey will open its gates before the immigrants towards Europe remains a risk factor”, he explained.

“With relation to action against illegal migration, it is vital for the intelligence system to be in good condition”, the Minster emphasised, adding: “Hungary is continuing to call for international politics to focus on helping people wo have had to leave their homes to enable them to return home as soon as possible”. The Minister cited the competition for investment projects as another priority area. “Hungary must stand its ground ‘in more cutthroat competition than ever before’ when it competed for investment projects that are introducing the new technologies of the modern global economy era to Hungary”, he stated. “There are changes going on in global politics and in the global economy that have resulted in the establishment of partly a new world order and partly a new global economic era”, Mr. Szijjártó explained. “This has launched a completely new competition between countries. Hungary must stand its ground in a competition of never before seen strength for the enforcement on national economic and political strategy interests”, he highlighted.

“The government is practicing patriotic politics, and the compass for its decisions are its national interests”, he said. “Hungary is a middle-sized country in Central Europe, where the sphere of interest of West and East have always collided”, he pointed out, adding: “Accordingly, we must expect major influence attempts from both east and west in future”. “The government’s task is to not move in the wrong direction and to concentrate exclusively on the national interest”, the Minister emphasised. “Successful intelligence work is playing an important role in this”, he added. “This is one of the reasons why we have realised several technological development projects recently within this field”, he stated. In reply to a question, the Minister also said that “George Soros and his organisation” have continued to perform major lobbying activities in the recent period in an attempt to ensure that one of the European Commission’s most important post, the Commissioner for Enlargement, is not received by a Hungarian candidate. “Their efforts have been unsuccessful however, in view of the fact that the European Parliament has voted to adopt the make-up of the new Commission, in which Olivér Várhelyi has been given the post of Commissioner for Enlargement  and neighbourhood Policy, with a large majority”, he stated.

(MTI)