Interview – Orbán: Clashes with Brussels expected on migration and economic issues

Budapest, January 13 (MTI) – Further clashes with Brussels are expected this year on issues concerning migration and economic management, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview to public radio on Friday. Hungarians should have access to information about all public personalities and their sources of financing, he said.

“We’ll have to defend the country’s sovereignty,” the prime minister said.

Attempts by Brussels to curb national competencies on migration issues should be stopped, Orbán said.

Hungary has reinstated the detention of asylum seekers, a step which clearly conflicts with EU policy but necessary due to heightened terror threat in Europe, he said. Laws that make terrorism easier to carry out should be changed for reasons of self defense, he added.

Of the second “battle”, Orbán said Brussels was increasingly interfering in economic management. Citing matters such as energy prices, taxes and wages, he insisted this tendency must be stopped.

Orbán highlighted measures to cut household utility fees, saying the scheme must be protected in light of EU plans to harmonise energy fees, thereby taking price-setting out of the hands of national governments. This would put an end to Hungary’s centralised measures to cut utility fees, he warned.

Orbán dubbed 2017 the “year of revolt”. EU member states will openly and unrelentingly oppose EU policies which “covertly or overtly” deprive them of their competencies, Orbán said. French presidential candidate Francois Fillon’s programme is “revolutionary” and opposed to EU immigration policies, among others, Orbán said.

This year will bring serious strain between policies aiming to protect national policymaking and the EU tendency to curb it, he said.

“Western reasoning is defined by frustration,” Orbán added. The West has been used to setting norms for eastern European countries in terms of modernising and democracy. “And now, they are failing: their indices are bad and ours are good because we do not do things their way. They do not want to admit our way works better”, he said. Instead of facing reality, western countries “keep on playing the same old record”, he added.

Commenting on Visegrad Four cooperation, he said that during the Hungarian presidency starting in July he would attempt to further deepen cooperation within the group. Referring to Hungarian-Polish relations, he said “solidarity is working well”, citing Hungary’s stand in the European Union on the issue of coal mining in Poland’s favour and Warsaw’s backing for Hungary in efforts to have the VAT on internet services reduced to 5 percent.