Minister of Justice László Trócsányi has spoken out with regard to criticism of Hungarian refugee policy in an interview for a Dutch daily newspaper.

In an interview with the Minister prepared during his visit to The Hague and published in Wednesday’s edition of de Volkskrant, Mr. Trócsányi stressed: “Last year was the year of naivety. People’s good heart told them: we must accept everyone without limiting their numbers. But now we have moved into the year of realism”.

The Minister pointed out that (in the European Union) migration is a so-called shared competence and accordingly every member state has a say and it is impossible for Europe to make a decision “while the member states look on in silence”.

Mr. Trócsányi was asked about the fact that last year the majority of EU member states decided on the distribution of 160 thousand refugees among themselves. In reply, the Justice Minister recalled that only six thousand of them had been relocated so far, which according to Mr. Trócsányi may be regarded as a “clear failure”. He stressed that the European Commission is putting pressure on the member states “claiming that it is compulsory to accept people”, but this is something the member states reject, and so this “cannot be a solution”.

He also pointed out that there are countries that have a colonial past and people in countries such as France are used to the phenomenon of migration and to immigrants from Algeria and other Arab countries. “But Central Europe is different, National identity and constitutional identity are much more important there and form part of our sovereignty, and this is characteristic of every V4 country”, he added.

Mr. Trócsányi pointed out that the integration of immigrants cannot always be regarded as successful. Acts of terrorism were committed in both Paris and Brussels last year, he recalled.

The Justice Minister said criticism of Hungary’s level of solidarity was unacceptable, pointing out that Hungary is protecting the external border of the European Union. “Nobody is giving us any money towards this, it is all financed by Hungarian taxpayers”, he highlighted, noting that “Border protection is also in Europe’s interests. This is also a form a solidarity”.

Mr. Trócsányi also stressed that public order must be protected in the interests of the community. According to the Minister, the neoliberal approach “forgets the word responsibility and concentrates solely on freedom”. “Law and order is one of the prerequisites of freedom and must be protected in the interests of every form of freedom”, the Minister highlighted, adding: “With freedom comes responsibility”.

(MTI)