Matters got a touch more heated between the Hungarian leader, Viktor Orban, and the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, on Thursday 7 September, over EU immigration policy. The two leaders, who are to meet in Tallinn at the end of the month for the special European summit on digital, may get together before then if necessary, Commission spokesperson Margaritis Schinas said on Friday 8 September. He went on to stress that Juncker is available.
In the wake of the judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU on relocation policies for asylum seekers (see EUROPE 11856), which was slammed as “irresponsible” by Budapest, Orban wrote to Juncker in response to an earlier letter from the Luxembourger turning down Hungarian demands for reimbursement for an anti-migrant fence erected on the Hungarian borders (see EUROPE 11853).
In this most recent letter, the Hungarian Prime Minister criticised the “violence” of the compulsory quota mechanism for hosting refugees and said that he would not allow Hungary to become an “immigration country”. The two men clashed in particular over the definition of European solidarity.
Orban replied by saying that “the interpretation of the principle of solidarity described in your letter is in essence the transformation of Hungary into an immigration country against the will of the Hungarian citizens”. “In my view, this is not solidarity, it is violence”, Orban stressed, pointing out that unlike several other EU countries, Hungary has no “colonial past”.
The large member states have become immigration countries, as a result of the obligations stemming from their colonial heritage, the Hungarian Prime Minister went on to write. “But Hungary is not an immigrant country” and cannot accept being forced to become one. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)