German daily Stuttgarter Zeitung published an interview with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó on Monday under the title “There is currently a lot of hypocrisy”.

With reference to the Government’s decision to call a referendum, Mr. Szijjártó highlighted the fact that there is currently a lot of hypocrisy in the debate concerning migration and even the name given to the problem is misleading, because this is not a refugee crisis, but a “migration crisis”.

According to the Foreign Minister, politicians in Brussels have no right to abuse their power and make decisions that “would redraw the cultural, religious and ethnic map of Europe”. The people must be asked with regard to “questions of such great importance” that permanently influence the coexistence of future generations.

Hungary “is demonstrating great solidarity”, he declared in reply to a question on the relationship between solidarity and refugee resettlement.
“Not a single illegal immigrant is reaching Germany via Hungary”, he pointed out, explaining that Hungary has closed its borders and in this case solidarity means that Hungary is enforcing European law.

In reply to a suggestion that closing the borders does not solve the problem, but simply transfers it to other countries, Mr. Szijjártó said he had to disagree, because the problem had been solved and “it is a fact that if every country adhered to Schengen regulations and protected its borders there would not be one million migrants in Germany”.

Solving the problem requires the protection of Europe’s borders and the provision of assistance to countries in the Syrian region such as Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, that care for people who have fled the civil war ravaged country, in addition to which the reasons that cause people to flee must be removed, meaning peace must be established in Syria and the region’s development must be facilitated, the Hungarian Foreign Minister explained.

Our task is not “to create an opportunity for migrants to live here in Europe”, but “to assure that people have a future in their own homelands”, he pointed out.

In reply to a question on the extent to which he felt Germany was to blame for the crisis, Mr. Szijjártó said he was not pointing the finger of blame at anyone, adding that he particularly would not wish to blame the German Chancellor in view of the fact that she has "the most complicated job” of all EU leaders, but said he did criticise the fact that “many statements by European politicians had encouraged migrants to set out for Europe”. These encouraging statements include the quota system, he noted.

When asked whether he then blames Greece for the crisis, Mr. Szijjártó said: Greece is not adhering to EU regulations, although it is understandable that in the current situation it is unable to protect its extremely long maritime border. For precisely this reason, it is difficult to understand why the EU has not embraced the Hungarian proposal to establish a joint border protection force which could be deployed to patrol Greece’s borders with police, helicopters and ships. “It is complicated, but not impossible”, Mr. Szijjártó said.

In reply to a question on whether border defence forces should send people who have reached Greece via sea back to Turkey, the Foreign Minister said yes, and emphasised that he is convinced that the majority of people would not set out [for the EU] if they knew that there was an impenetrable border between them and Europe.

“Nobody wants to shoot at people!”, Mr. Szijjártó declared, pointing out that the Hungarian border has been properly protected since last October, during which time “practically” nobody has succeeded in getting through the border and this has not required any shooting.

Mr. Szijjártó called the quota system “senseless” and stressed that “migrants do not want to come to Romania, Bulgaria or Hungary” but “to Germany, and that is exactly where they will go”. In addition, the quota contravened EU regulations because “it would lead to member states losing significant rights to a certain extent”; for instance they could decide who to let into their territory. Furthermore, the quota provides further encouragement to people living in crisis zones to set off for Europe, the Minister explained.

Europe has not had to face so many crises since the end of the World War II, Mr. Szijjártó added. There is a war raging in Ukraine, the terrorist threat is greater than ever, we must combat the effects of the economic crisis, we need to solve the problem of energy security, which is of “central significance”, “and now we also have a migration crisis to deal with”, he said, listing the challenges faced by the European Union.

“I am a realist. I would be happy to be more optimistic, but there are currently many issues for which we do not have good solutions”, the Hungarian Foreign Minister said.

(MTI)