There has never before been more at stake in European parliamentary elections, Gergely Gulyás, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office said in an interview given to Kossuth Radio’s programme ‘Sunday Paper’.

He said Europe has not been able to profit from immigration in any way. At the same time, however, parallel societies and tensions have emerged which are best avoided.

Mr Gulyás said on the issue of immigration one can only make a mistake once. In his view, also for this reason it is frightening and alarming that opposition parties, including all left-wing parties, are making it clear in connection with Mr Timmermans’s visit that they stand for a pro-immigration Europe.

He said there are countries in Western Europe which have reached the stage where the percentage of citizens with immigrant backgrounds is above 20 per cent.

Mr Gulyás said Germany, too, falls into this category, and underlined that these countries are compelled to create some sort of an ideology for their current situation, despite the fact that quite evidently immigration poses a security risk to Europe. He mentioned as examples the acts of terrorism which were committed on the continent by persons coming from immigrant backgrounds.

He highlighted that if voters who dislike the government parties put their hands on their hearts, they must clearly recognise that it is thanks to the centre-right civic government alone that Hungary has taken on the fight against immigration right from the beginning.

In European politics no one is a more credible advocate of the fact that immigration can be stopped than the Hungarian government and Prime Minister, he stated.

Mr Gulyás repeatedly underlined that never before has there been more at stake in the European parliamentary elections than today.

He highlighted that Europe must now state its opinion on the issue of migration; this is something they have not yet had a chance to do since 2015, the beginning of the migration crisis.

The head of the Prime Minister’s Office said in the EP the Hungarian people could only rely on the government parties in the fight against immigration. “Every time Brussels attacked us, we could only rely on the government party MEPs; the other left-liberal MEPs and Jobbik’s MEPs, with the exception of Krisztina Morvai, represented Brussels,” he said.

Mr Gulyás advised electors to honour those candidates with their trust in the vote on 26 May who will represent the Hungarian interests.

The Minister also said they sincerely hope that the European Commission’s spokesperson who made a statement on a political level is right in connection with the assessment in Brussels of the baby expecting support programme.

He pointed out that the documents regarding the Brussels administrative investigation conducted after the government’s announcement clearly support the fact that the Commission has raised concerns.

However, after the issue had been elevated to a political level, the government received a verbal guarantee that the Commission would have no objections of any kind to the baby expecting support programme, Mr Gulyás added. He further observed that if the Commission did not have a problem with the migrant bank cards and the (humanitarian) migrant visas, it is only too fair if they likewise do not have a problem with the family support schemes of Member States.

(MTI)