American news channel CNN interviewed Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó on the subject of migration and the upcoming referendum.

The Minister pointed out that Hungary isn’t the only one who has built a fence to stop illegal immigration; so has Bulgaria and Great Britain is also constructing a fence at Calais, and they are not being criticised for doing so.
“There are rules and regulations for how to cross the border. If someone purposefully disregards these laws then we will not admit them”, he declared.

“Hungary is being criticised because it is upholding all of the joint regulations currently in force in the European Union. These state that it is our duty to protect the external border of the Schengen Zone”, he stressed.

Mr. Szijjártó rejected claims that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was generating anti-migrant sentiment. “Hungary rests on the foundations of international law. The right to a secure life is a fundamental human right, but it is not a fundamental human right to choose a country to live in and it is not a fundamental human right to illegally cross the border between peaceful countries”, he said.

According to the Hungarian Foreign Minister it is a question with regard to the future of Europe whether we should allow the European Commission to force the Member States of the European Union to give up part of their sovereignty and whether we should allow Brussels to dictate to Hungary to whom it should allow entry to its territory and who it should bar entry to. Only the people of Hungary can bring a decision that affects Hungary”, he declared.

“Everyone is very angry in Europe. They are angry because there is an increasing gap between the European people and the European political elite. Europe’s political elite is currently afraid to ask the people their opinion on this matter, because it knows that the people disagree with them”, he said.

With relation to the upcoming referendum on the compulsory relocation quota, Mr. Szijjártó was asked why no referendum is being held on the planned expansion of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant, to which the Hungarian Foreign Minister asked in reply: Who has held a referendum on nuclear power plants so far; the United Kingdom, France, Finland?

In reply to a question concerning what will happen if the Government loses the referendum, the Minister stressed that the Government would not lose the referendum, but declared that whatever happens it will respect the result of the referendum.
With relation to this Mr. Szijjártó pointed out that as a sovereign country Hungary has the right to state whether or not it agrees with certain policies.

“We absolutely do not agree with current European immigration policy, because it is bad. It is bad for Europe and very bad for the people of Europe. This is why we totally reject the quota system, because it is impossible to implement. It goes against common sense and contravenes current EU regulations”, he said.

(MTI)