Hungary confirms wish to send migrants to Brussels

As the Hungarian Parliament met on September 30, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán warned the European Union that what was first mooted, almost as a joke, could soon become reality.

Speaking about the decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union to fine his country €200 million for breaking asylum rules, Orbán was in no mood to accept the ruling and made it clear that he would get his own back.

Hungarian Prime Minister tells Parliament he supports sending asylum seekers to Brussels

Perhaps inspired by the Republican ‘play book’ in the USA, the Hungarian Prime Minister made it clear the he wasn’t joking when threatening to send asylum seekers arriving at Hungarian borders to Brussels.

“If Brussels persists in its decision to punish us, it will get what it wants,” he said, then added “We will take the migrants who are banging on Hungary’s gates to the main square in Brussels.”

Quite understandably, the Brussels Council isn’t enamoured by this threat but at the moment it is still far from becoming a reality.

“The era of free travel is coming to an end,” Orbán said in his speech, referring to Germany’s decision to temporarily introduce controls at its borders and new French Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s stance on tightening France’s frontier controls.

Hungary has been part of EU for just 20 years and has been a difficult partner

Hungary only joined the European Union in 2004 and is part of Schengen, although it has not yet replaced the forint with the euro although that is due to happen sooner rather than later.

Although Orbán was not in power when Hungary became part of the European Union, his right wing government has been in power for the past 14 years and there little doubt that he has been a ‘thorn in the flesh’ of the European Union whilst being smart enough to criticise yet also obtain large amounts of financial support.

Prime Minister sees EU as anti-nationalist

He is a self-proclaimed defender of Christian values in the face of the European Union, which he claims is anti-nationalist and until early 2024 blocked financial support to Ukraine although that position has changed and in July he travelled to Kyiv to meet with Ukraine’s President Zelensky.

It has to be remembered that politics can be a convoluted occupation and there are is a significant population of ethnic Hungarians within Ukraine and also Hungary has relied on Russian gas for decades.

Hungary fined for asylum seeker stance despite holding Presidency of Europe

It is ironic that the decision to fine Hungary for its position over asylum seekers comes at a time when Hungary took over the EU Presidency on July 1, 2024 which will not be relinquished until the end of the year.

At the same time as suggesting that with the tightening of border restrictions across parts of the EU that Hungary took the correct position from the beginning, Prime Minister Orbán has been meeting with African leaders such as the President of Chad in an effort to turn off the flow of African migrants at source.