“Europe will be strong if it becomes a Europe of families, because if the Europe of migrants is realised, then it will be weak”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared on Thursday in Budapest.

At a conference entitled Europe’s Future: Family or Migration organised by the Századvég Foundation, the Minister said the challenges facing Europe are leading to disputes, and these disputes will reach their zenith at the European Parliament elections, where what is at stake is whether Europe will be strong or weak”. “A synonym of this question is whether Europe will be a Europe of families or a Europe of migrants”, he pointed out. “In May, European citizens will have a decisive say in which path the continent will follow”, he added.

According to Mr. Szijjártó, achieving a strong Europe requires also allowing competition within the EU; the security of European citizens and families must be restored, enlargement must continue, Christian culture and the European identity must be preserved, and a fair debate must be conducted on the next EU budget, which must focus on families and not on migrants. “The newly formed European institutions will hopefully represent an anti-immigration and strongly pro-European position, and the next European Parliament and European Commission will stand up on the side of European families instead of the migrants”, he explained.

Among the challenges facing the EU, the Hungarian Foreign Minister mentioned the conflict in Ukraine, establishing energy security, the terrorist threat caused by mass illegal migration, Brexit and parallel societies. “The Brussels bureaucracy often deny their plan and intention to continue to flood the continent with migrants”, he pointed out.

Mr. Szijjártó said that in his opinion it is not a problem that there is debate on the future of Europe, but it is a problem that these debates immediately move to an emotional plane, and if someone does not represent the European mainstream position, then they are immediately stigmatised. “Debates must be decided based on mutual respect and common sense”, he said, adding: “We are ready to act accordingly, but have had enough of being talked down to”.

Ministerial Commissioner and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for a Civil Hungary Zoltán Balog stressed: “Realising a Europe of families is not just a question of demographics, but also a cultural and spiritual issue”, adding that in his opinion migration might seem a logical and viable response “in places where there are already many of them”.

“However, when Europe gives up its identity and sides with multiculturalism, the question arises: to what can people be integrated?”, he said, adding that the consumer society remains the only common identity.

According to Mr. Balog, it was the right decision to place the “Soros Plan” at the centre of the Government’s struggle, because it displays an approach that represents the greatest threat: according to the open society’s philosophy “those who admit are good, those who don’t are bad”.

“Whereas only the good should be admitted; what isn’t good must be excluded”, he said. The Commissioner also spoke about the fact that the difference between Christian faith and culture lies in the fact that faith is a personal belief, the protection of which is the task of the Christian community, while protecting the culture that stems from it is the duty of the state.

(MTI)