Opposition slams Orban for anti-immigration remarks

Budapest, January 12 (MTI) – The opposition Dialogue for Hungary (PM) condemns Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s recent remarks on immigration and asks the premier to withdraw his statements, Timea Szabo, the party’s co-leader, said on Monday.

On Sunday, after attending a mass rally in Paris, Orban called for a firm EU response to the terrorist murders in France, and added that “immigration must be stopped”. People claiming political asylum should be exempted, he told public television M1.

“It must be made clear that we will not allow, at least as long as I am the prime minister … Hungary to become the target of immigrants,” he said. “We do not want a significant minority with different cultural characteristics and backgrounds living among us; we would like Hungary to stay as Hungary is,” he added.

Szabo asked Orban to stop “rubbing shoulders with the radical right” and riding against the will of the Hungarian people who, she said, want the country to be a part of Europe not only economically but culturally, too.

Szabo said Orban’s remarks were “proof that he takes policies of the radical right as a model” and wants to make Hungary an isolated country shunned by European states. She added that in any case Hungary has never been an attractive target for immigration due to a complete lack of a comprehensive integration policy.

Orban’s remarks also mean that he believes the hundreds and thousands of Hungarians working abroad have no place in European countries.

“The prime minister doesn’t consider the work of Hungarians legitimate, although these people have been forced to find work abroad thanks to Fidesz’s impoverishing economic policy,” she insisted.

Szabo said PM is of the opinion that a colourful community with a multitude of cultural traits and backgrounds would strengthen and advance Hungary.