“The people of the ‘Soros network’ are organising migration throughout the Balkans”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday on Kossuth Radio’s “Good Morning, Hungary!”, show.

The Prime Minister said organisations financed by Soros are essentially engaged in “migration consultancy”.

“George Soros wants to acquire political influence, he is the world’s number one oligarch, he is financing NGOs that claim to be civil organisations, groups and activists using mafia-style, hidden network methods, and is buying politicians”, he stated.

“Also behind the disputes lies the fact that the hired politicians financed by Soros are pro-migration, while Hungary is against it”, he declared.

With relation to the breakthrough attempt at the Röszke border crossing point on Tuesday, the Prime Minister explained: “Those who crossed the border into Hungary were apprehended by the police, and with the application of the ‘legal border barrier’ have already been brought to trial, and rulings have in fact also been issued, and they will be expelled from the country”.

It is also evident from the video recordings made at Röszke that there were no women or children among the migrants, only men of military age in good physical condition and with good equipment, who “were not blown here by the wind”, he continued.

With relation to the migration situation, Mr. Orbán said that pressure on the southern stretch of the border is increasing, and protecting against it is increasingly difficult, as a result of which the government has doubled the number of military personnel serving at the border.

“Border protection and action against migration remains the most important European and Hungarian issue today”, he said in evaluation.

The Prime Minister also said that he is now fighting to ensure that money from the upcoming EU budget is not spend on joint European border protection, but that the money is instead given to member states.

“To date, the EU has given Hungary funding for border protection ‘that cannot even be called pocket money’, despite the fact that our job well done is also generating interest with the Austrians, we are also the ‘captains of the fort’ to the Bavarians, and in fact Hungary is protecting all of Germany against illegal immigration arriving from the south”, he said.

With relation to the coronavirus, Mr. Orbán said that an operational directorate has been set up under the leadership of Minister of Interior Sándor Pintér in the interests of protecting against the virus. “The required steps must be coordinated between, for instance, the immigration authorities and border security, and if the virus appears it must be identified, following which public administration measures will be required”, he explained.

“The body includes members – the Minister responsible for healthcare and the National Chief Medical Officer are both members – who can assist with protection”, the Prime Minister said, adding: “There is no problem at this time, but there could be, and so we must take the issue seriously”.

“We must not cause panic, but we must also not trivialise the issue even if there is currently no information regarding the fact that there is anyone in Hungary who carries the disease”, he added.

“There are eight Hungarians currently in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the source of the infection, seven of whom want to return home, and they are expected to be back home before the end of this week”, he informed listeners.

He also noted that he has asked Minister of Justice Judit Varga to review whether the current regulations concerning enabling action against spreading scaremongering news reports are sufficient.

On the subject of claims for damages with relation to prison conditions, Mr. Orbán spoke about the fact that lawyers have built a “business”, have launched 12 thousand cases of legal action against their homeland to date, are “extracting” rulings from the European Court of Justice, and the Hungarian state is expected to pay out money, “60 percent of which ends up on the accounts of lawyers”. This is a “prison business” and an abuse of the law, against which we must take the most determined possible action”, he declared.

“With relation to the accommodation of prisoners, we must at least realise a level of change so that prison conditions cannot be a basis of reference for ‘ill-intentioned lawyers’, and accordingly new buildings are being opened”, the Prime Minister added.

With relation to ongoing cases, he said he is not happy to pay out a single cent, because “lawyers are sharing taxpayers’ money with criminals”. “It is simply madness”, he said in reaction.

The Gyöngyöspata school affair was also mentioned during the radio show, with relation to which the Prime Minister explained: “An unhappy state of affairs has developed in the school of the small town, which is 80 percent inhabited by non-Roma citizens – a high level of absenteeism, physical abuse and the breaking of school regulations – to which non-Roma Hungarians reacted by starting to remove their children from the school”. “Non-Roma inhabitants began to feel that although they are in the majority, it is they who must back down. And now, as a result of the procedure launched by the Soros organisations, based on a court ruling, millions must be paid out to those who made it impossible for their children to study properly in the first place”, he said.

“We are on the side of those 80 percent of honest Hungarians who make a living from work and demand a good education for their children, and who are currently being forced to back down in Gyöngyöspata”, he stated. He indicated that he has asked the region’s Fidesz-party Member of Parliament to “rapidly turn the situation around”. In future, László Horváth will also be working as a Prime Ministerial Commissioner in the interests of investigating similar cases, and will be putting forward recommendations, he stated.

“The Roma families naturally also include people who would like their children to go to a good school, and they are also being prevented from doing so by the hooligans”, he added.

“I do not want to pay money out (…) to parents who allowed their children to be absent from school for 500 hours, and who if they did attend school behaved in a manner that made teaching absolutely impossible”, he declared, stating: “The government is on the side of honest working people”.

With relation to the interim mayoral election in Györ, which was won by Fidesz-KDNP candidate Csaba András Dézsi, Mr. Orbán said: “Győr will be in good hands in the upcoming period; Csaba András Dézsi understands that development must be maintained”. “The new mayor’s integrity is beyond reproach, and in view of the fact that we also collapsed morally in that city, our honour must be restored”, he added.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)