“It is pure blackmail on the part of the European Commission that it is launching infringement proceedings against member states that are unwilling to implement the decision to introduce a quota for the mandatory resettlement of illegal immigrants. Hungary will resist this and will not allow entry to a single illegal immigrant”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared on Hungarian M1 television’s Wednesday morning current affairs program.

In Mr. Szijjártó’s opinion, the Commission wants to cover up the fact that the whole quota concept has “failed miserably” in view of the fact that it has been almost two years since the decision was made to resettle 120 thousand people, but only 20 thousand have been successfully relocated. “Nobody has fully implemented the EU decision, but there are countries, including Hungary, who have clearly explained why they are refusing to do so”, he explained.

“According to Hungary’s standpoint, this idea is extremely dangerous in view of the fact that we are living under a serious threat of terrorism, which is a direct result of the fact that one and a half million illegal immigrants have arrived in Europe in such a way that “we don’t even have any idea of who they are”. Hungary has made it clear that it will not be allowing any illegal immigrants to enter its territory and that “we will not allow the European Commission or anyone else to strip us of our right to decide who we want to live with and who we want to allow entry to”, he said.

According to Mr. Szijjártó, the announcement by the European Commission is also “hypocritical” because in 2012, the current Commissioner for Migration was Greece’s Minister of Defence, when the country built a fence along its border with Turkey because of the high level of illegal immigration, and in 2013 he said this decision was a very good one.  “But now, in 2017 he is talking about why fences should not be constructed along the borders between two countries and why countries must not defend themselves against illegal immigration”, he said, adding that “this undermines the credibility of the European Commission”.

Speaking later on Kossuth Radio’s “180 Minutes” program, the Hungarian Foreign Minister spoke about the fact that Europe had been shaken by terrorist attacks recently and hundreds of people throughout the continent had been killed in terrorist attacks, and EU bodies should be concentrating on the high threat of terrorism that Europe is facing. “But instead, they are concentrating on Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland”, he said. “Is what we think about illegal immigration really Europe’s biggest problem”, when there have been terrorist attacks in Europe?, he asked.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)