Enlarge image
Luxembourg Foreign Minister Asselborn
Photo:
Virginia Mayo / POOL / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
Viktor Orbán is used to making questionable announcements about migration.
Now, Hungary's right-wing national head of government has verbally got it right, even for his own standards.
"Migrant armies are banging on all the doors of Europe," Orbán said on state radio.
Because of the corona pandemic, he was in favor of “not allowing any migration for two years”.
People should be happy where they were born "as a result of God's destiny".
Jean Asselborn, the EU's longest-serving foreign minister, reacts indignantly.
"Orbán is an imposition for the EU," the Luxembourger told SPIEGEL.
"How long can the EU still carry this ballast from Orbán?" The Hungarian government is "ruining solidarity in Europe and in the Schengen area," said Asselborn.
"Orbán is betraying the EU and its values."
"Where are the hordes threatening Hungarians supposed to be?"
Asselborn demands that the large member states - such as Germany - must finally put an end to Orbán's activities.
"There is no point in talking about the future of the EU if we accept this present," said Asselborn.
The Hungarians themselves once benefited from the willingness of other countries to accept.
"After the Hungarian uprising in 1956, the Europeans took in hundreds of thousands of refugees," says Asselborn.
He recommended that Orbán “look into the eyes of a refugee child in Moria for ten seconds.
He should be ashamed of himself. "
In addition, Orbán's warning of “migrant armies” has nothing to do with reality.
"In 2015 1.8 million people came to the EU, last year there were 124,000," said Asselborn.
"Where are the hordes threatening Hungarians supposed to be?"
Hungary has around ten million inhabitants.
According to official statistics, around 194,000 foreigners with legal residence permits lived in the country at the beginning of this year.
Among them were more than 57,000 EU citizens, around 32,000 Ukrainians, 18,000 Chinese and 35,000 other Asians.
Last December, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) declared parts of the Hungarian asylum legislation to be unlawful.
The court found that the rules gave virtually no access to the asylum procedure to those seeking protection.
The ECJ saw this as a violation of EU law.
Strictly speaking, a "migration ban" would mean that any influx of foreign skilled workers, entrepreneurs and family members would be prevented.
It would probably not apply to EU citizens.
Within the EU, they have freedom of movement to settle.
mbe
