“The Government’s most important task is to assure the right to safety”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared in Geneva on Monday before the UN Human Rights Committee in explanation and defence of Hungary’s anti-immigration stance.

The Minister began his speech by explaining that the history of the Hungarian people is full of fights for freedom, and as a result the Hungarians truly value human rights. He highlighted three fundamental freedoms: the right to safety, the right to work and the right to start a family and set up home, which, he stated, it is the duty of every government to assure.

“The Hungarian people have the right to live in safety, to not have to live in fear of terrorist attacks, and to protect themselves from the security risks involved in the establishment of parallel societies”, he said, pointing out that in 2015, 400 thousand illegal immigrants had marched through Hungary with a fundamental disregard for international and national laws and Hungarians behavioural and moral norms. “Accordingly, Hungary says no to all initiatives that facilitate or encourage illegal immigration. Hungary has received and continues to receive a lot of international criticism because of this, in view of the fact that it has said no to the European Union’s quota system and is also not supporting the UN Compact for Migration in its current form”, he added.

“The Hungarian Government is guaranteeing people’s right to safety, it is not allowing entry to illegal immigrants and will not do so in future”, he continued, pointing out the link between immigration and the acts of terrorism that have been committed in Western Europe during the past two years. “The Hungarian Government has assured its citizens’ right to express their opinion through national consultations and a referendum, and the Hungarians have said a clear no to illegal immigration”, he added.

“In addition, the Hungarian people also have the right to have everyone respect this opinion of theirs”, Mr. Szijjártó stressed, adding that Hungary’s government is doing everything possible to ensure that in future the decision on who we want to live with and who can and cannot enter Hungary will continue to be made exclusively by the people of Hungary.

With relation to the debate on multicultural society ongoing on various UN forums, he pointed out that a uniform and orderly homogeneous society is not worth anything less than a multicultural one.

He also pointed out that NGOs are representing international interests, but the Hungarian Government is representing the interests of the Hungarian people.

“To us, the safety of the Hungarian people is paramount, but public safety is not important to international NGOs. The image according to which NGOs are representing the position of Hungarian society or any other society is a false one.  Nobody has ever elected NGOs to do anything. The will of the people is legitimately represented by parliaments and governments”, he stressed, adding that public support for NGOs in Hungary is evident from the figures for the 1 percent of personal income tax that can be freely given to any non-profit organisation each year: namely extremely small. “For instance, only 193 people out of the country’s 4.5 million tax payers gave their 1 percent tax to Amnesty International, and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, which regularly attacks the Government and portrays itself as a representative of society, only received taxes from a total of 516 people”, the Minister said.

“The NGOs are attacking the Hungarian Government because it is firmly anti-immigration. You will be contacted regularly by pro-immigration NGOs, who will tell you how bad the Hungarian Government’s actions are, but this will not sway us from our position”, he stated, adding that the majority of NGOs that are attacking their Hungarian Government belong to George Soros’s network.

The Minister then moved on to the right to work, explaining that the Hungarian Government is creating the opportunity for every citizen to exercise this right. “In 2012, the rate of unemployment was above 12 percent, but it is now only 3.8 percent, which according to economic theory is very close to full employment. In addition, real average earnings have increased by 36 percent over the space of 8 years, and the minimum wage has increased by 88 percent”, he said, listing the Government’s achievements.

Mr. Szijjártó stressed that Hungary does not want to solve its demographic problems with migration, but through a suitable family policy and a tax policy that encourages people to have children.

In closing, the Minister once again underlined the fact that assuring people’s safety comes first and is the most important task on which everything is based, and that the Hungarian Government will not compromise with regard to public safety.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)