On Tuesday, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó rejected statements by Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovič, in which he criticised Hungary

In a statement issued to Hungarian news agency MTI by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, he recalled that in a Monday evening television interview Mr. Milanovič said that Hungary had let migrants travel through the country for a year without registering them, so they wouldn’t be sent back there.

“If 65 thousand people arrive somewhere over a period of a year, that’s nothing, but if you have 20 thousand arriving in just two days, that’s a lot, that’s impossible to register”, Mr. Milanovič stated.

The Croatian Prime Minister said he couldn’t understand “the rigidity and Knight Templar-like convulsive attitude of Hungary’s leaders”. He also stated that he had not spoken with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, “but it seems no one from the West is talking to him”.

Finally, in reply to a question concerning the fact that Croatia had sent a train full of migrants to Hungary, Mr. Milanovič said “we can leave that train there for them, since they took INA”, after “the HDZ gave it to them”. (A reference to the public takeover of Croatian oil company INA by Hungarian rival MOL in 2008). But “we don’t need a Schengen like this; it doesn’t work because of Greece”, he continued.

In reaction to the statements, Mr. Szijjártó said the Prime Minster of Croatia “had failed miserably on his first real European test, and not even his intricate lies could hide that”.

Following several days of his “boasting”, the Croatian refugee care system, which he claimed was fully prepared to handle the situation, collapsed within 24 hours, the Minster said.

Hungary is extremely insulted by the fact that despite this, Zoran Milanovič continued to make “pathetic and deceitful outbursts” against Hungary, Mr. Szijjártó stated.

“Over 220 thousand immigrants have arrived in Hungary so far this year, whose care and accommodation we have provided for and the vast majority of whom we have registered”, he pointed out.

“In contrast, Croatia is purposefully contravening EU law, has declared that it is incapable of protecting the European Union’s external borders, and is transporting groups of several thousand immigrants to Hungary in an organised manner instead of registering them and providing them with care and accommodation”, he added.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)