“The European Commission and the European Parliament have both made is absolutely clear that they are still in favour of the [compulsory resettlement] quota”, Minister of State for Economic Diplomacy Levente Magyar said at a press conference in Budapest, which he held jointly with Parliamentary State Secretary Csaba Dömötör.
People are not required to state their opinion on the Government or Viktor Orbán, but may decide on their own fate at the referendum of 2 October, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office pointed out.
Some 370,000 asylum-seekers have been registered in Hungary to date who may be sent back by Western-European countries on the basis of international law, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office told the newspaper Magyar Nemzet.
Following the upgrade by Fitch Ratings in May 2016, S&P’s decision to restore Hungary’s status in investment grade category has been the direct consequence of the country’s economic performance, Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga said, commenting on the ratings agency’s announcement. It is another sign, he added, that the transformation of the Hungarian economy has been successful.
“One hundred and five illegal border crossers were apprehended within the territory of Hungary between Friday and Sunday”, the National Police Headquarters told Hungarian news agency MTI on Monday.
“One positive result of Friday’s EU summit is that the European Union will also be helping to protect the Bulgarian border with funding, because much will be decided on the Bulgarian border in the coming weeks and months”, the Prime Minister’s Chief Advisor on Homeland Security György Bakondi said on M1 Hungarian television’s Saturday evening current affairs programme.
“Hungary’s standpoint is that we must put a stop to the mass inflow of unmonitored migrants across the border and the Schengen requirements must be enforced during border controls, because no Member State of the European Union can talk about homeland security without border security”, the Prime Minister’s Chief Advisor on Homeland Security said.
At a press conference held in Bratislava on Friday after an informal summit of leaders of EU Member States, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that the summit had been unsuccessful in that “we failed to change Brussels’ immigration policy”.
Government Spokesperson Zoltán Kovács has told Hungarian television channel M1 that setting up a joint European army is in the fundamental interests of the EU.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán gave an interview to Kossuth Rádió’s on Thursday, before leaving for Friday’s EU summit in Bratislava. In the interview, which was broadcast on the Friday morning programme “180 Minutes”, Mr. Orbán said that on the issue of illegal immigration we must act, rather than surrender.