“Since, in accordance with the will of the people, Hungary does not want to become an immigrant country, we must prepare for the fact that this will generate further attacks on the part of the EU and certain member states”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared on Hungarian M1 television’s Tuesday morning current affairs program.

“The migration crisis has been at the centre of European political discussions for three years now, but the issue continues to be surrounded by an incredible level of hypocrisy”, the Minister said.

“However, although the European Parliament and the European Commission have still not given up on the plan to introduce the continuous entry of immigrants with no upper limit, it is clear that the viewpoint of practically every member state is approaching Hungary’s standpoint according to which the protection of external borders must be reinforced and the problem must be handled outside the European Union”, he added.

Mr. Szijjártó said the statements by the leader of the German “socialists” (SPD), Martin Schulz criticising Hungary were astounding. According to the Hungarian Foreign Minister, the politician is ignoring the fact that Germany has Hungary to thank for the reduction of migration pressure, i.e. for the fact that today, Germany’ southern border lies along the Hungarian-Serbian and Hungarian-Croatian borders, and if Hungary had not spent some one billion euros on protecting its southern borders, Germany would have to face a much greater problem.

With relation to the fact that the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) will be visiting Hungary, the Minister said the activities of the Committee are a “theatre”, and its report condemning Hungary has already been written.

“The Committee wants to make Europe into an immigrant continent, something with which Hungary does not agree”, he declared.

Speaking on Kossuth Radio’s Tuesday morning “180 Minutes” program, Mr. Szijjártó stressed: “Hungary’s major diplomatic efforts indicate that Hungary remains an active participant in international politics”.

He recalled that last year the Prime Ministers of Egypt and Israel, the Chinese Premier and the leaders of 15 Central and European states all made official visits to Hungary. “So far this year, the Polish and Irish Prime Ministers have visited Budapest, Victor Orbán had been received by the Bavarian Prime Minister, and on Wednesday in Berlin the Hungarian Prime Minister will be meeting with the directors of Germany’s 50 largest corporations, after which he will be meeting with the Austrian Chancellor in Vienna at the end of the month”, the Minister explained.

With relation to the statement by the Bavarian Prime Minister according to which Bavaria wishes to establish an economic alliance with the states of Central Europe, Mr. Szijjártó said: “Central Europe may be regarded as the European engine of economic growth, a fact which is also being exploited by German investors. Amongst many others, there are 6 thousand German enterprises operating in Hungary, providing jobs to 300 thousand people. In such a situation, the Bavarian Prime Minister’s suggestion makes sense”.

As an example, Mr. Szijjártó explained that trade flow between Germany and the counties of the V4 is 55 percent higher than the flow of goods between Germany and France, despite the fact that the German-French axis is traditionally regarded as the engine of the European economy.

(MTI)