“Another period is approaching in Europe in which they want to increase pressure on anti-immigration governments and will be attempting to push the mandatory resettlement quota down the throats of the countries of Europe once again”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Kossuth Radio’s “Sunday Paper” show on Sunday morning.

The Minister pointed out that there is absolutely no legal basis for anyone to try and force a new kind of resettlement quota onto Hungary or any other European Union member state. However, he said that in his view this has previously not prevented the supporters of the quota from exerting political pressure on countries that reject the mandatory resettlement system.

Mr. Szijjártó said it was an extremely alarming and dangerous step that the new Italian government has opened the southern Italian ports to boats transporting illegal immigrants. “This will unfortunately give further impetus to the wave of illegal immigration, and also to those who are attempting to push through the mandatory resettlement quota”, he indicated.

He stressed that the opening of the ports is at odds with Europe’s security interests, and is exclusively good for the people smugglers in view of the fact that it will encourage hundreds of thousands of people to once again pay out thousands of dollars to people smugglers. “There are already more than enough illegal immigrants in Europe, we should not be allowing entry to more”, Mr. Szijjártó declared.

The Minister underlined that conditions similar to those in 2015 are once again being experienced in Greece, where some seven thousand illegal immigrants have arrived during the past two months, and the Greek islands are “incredibly crowded”.

“Turkey has already apprehended over 270 thousand illegal immigrants so far this year, and thousands of illegal immigrants have accumulated in the Western Balkans and are ruining the lives of the locals and behaving extremely aggressively in an attempt to force the authorities to allow them to continue on towards Europe”, he explained. He also pointed out that the opening of the southern Italian ports will be interpreted as yet another invitation by people who are considering setting off for Europe.

Mr. Szijjártó highlighted the fact that Hungary continues to refuse to accept any kind of resettlement quota, in addition to which it regards the protection of the borders as its primary duty, while also insisting on its right to “decide exclusively for itself who we allow into our own country and (…) who we want to live with”.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister said that the countries of the Visegrád Group (V4) remain unanimously supportive of each other with regard to this issue.

He also mentioned that Hungary and the previous Italian government including Interior Minister Matteo Salvini had proven that the illegal immigration processes can be stopped.

“In Hungary’s case this resulted in political revenge, which had several signs, including the Sargentini Report and the application of pressure, while in Italy it has resulted in a break with Salvini’s politics and a return to the false Brussels narrative, according to which migration processes are unstoppable”, the Minister explained.

He declared that the current Italian government represents a position that is totally at odds with that of the Hungarian Cabinet concerning the most important issues, in view of the fact that it is a pro-immigration, left-wing government. “The Hungarian Cabinet will not accept the application of pressure from any European capital that would lead to it having to admit illegal immigrants into Hungary”, he underlined.

Mr. Szijjártó declared that, as it has to date, the Hungarian Government will continue to do everything possible in future to protect Hungary from illegal immigration and to preserve Hungary as a country of Hungarians.

(MTI)