Migration Conference – Orbán urges swift action on migration

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, speaking at a conference on migration on Saturday, called for swift action to be taken on migration and border protection and he also called for European unity.

Addressing the Budapest Migration Conference organised by the Mathias Corvinus Collegium, Orbán said, “We need to act now”.

If European policymakers fail to make decisions immediately, then it will be impossible to stop later what has already begun.

The prime minister cited UN data indicating that the population of Africa will rise by half a billion people in 13 years and the gap between the quality of life in Africa and Europe will widen.

“Migration pressure from Africa will surely grow,” he said.

Orbán urged help to be given to Africans in their home countries rather than in Europe.

The approach to migration by the eastern and western parts of Europe must be reconciled now because later this would become impossible to achieve, he said.

Current EU leaders and structures are not up to the task of resolving the problem of migration, Orban said, adding that he agreed with Nicolas Sárközy, the former French president, who argued that the European Commission should be stripped of its powers over migration policymaking and border protection and a body of Schengen area interior ministers should be established to address the issue.

“If, at least, we achieve this after the European elections, it will have been worth holding them,” he said.

For western Europe, managing the coexistence of indigenous citizens with other peoples is of key importance, but for central Europe “there aren’t any such masses and all efforts must go towards making sure there aren’t any in future either”.

Orbán said Hungarians had the moral upper hand because, unlike western attitudes, they do not want to force their own approach on the West.

Hungary’s current outsized role in the debate is a function of its geography and history, he said, noting that when migrants choose to come to Europe overland, they must arrive at the southern borders of Hungary.

“Neither Hungary nor its political leaders, including me, want to play a leading role in Europe,” he said, adding, however, that ordinary Hungarians never again wanted to experience hundreds of thousands of military-age men traversing the country.

“This is why a fence was built and why the government has stood up to mainstream Europe,” he said.

The prime minister also said Europe should be led by institutions. It was not designed for individuals and strong political figures, he said, adding that the European political concept of maintaining strong institutions was right, Orbán said.

He said European “soft power” was 85 percent dominated by think-tanks, NGOs, universities and the media of the left-liberal wing which acted in concert. “This is the reason why, when a western European thinks like a Hungarian and says what he thinks, the 85 percent shreds it to pieces by the next morning,” he said. But in central Europe “the proportion is 50-50 or even moving in a slightly more conservative direction.”