Orbán: Hungary has delegated ‘excellent man’ to EC

In László Trócsányi, Hungary nominated an excellent man as its European commissioner, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview to public radio on Friday.

In his regular interview to Kossuth Radio, the prime minister said his critics could at best claim from their point of view that Trócsányi came from “the wrong place because he is Hungarian”. “But we are so many of us Hungarian that we cannot accept this objection,” he added.

Commenting on the importance the EU’s neighbourhood and enlargement policy, he noted that Trócsányi’s duties would cover relations with the Western Balkans, Ukraine, the Caucasus and north Africa, which, he added, were all important from the point of view of migration.

Orbán said that in the course of Trócsányi’s European parliamentary hearing “further hot moments” were expected, but his personal aptitude was the key issue.

He praised Trócsányi’s “intellectual ability” and noted Trócsányi’s achievements such as his many years of experience in the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional matters.

Orbán said that trends in diplomacy in recent months had been good for Hungary’s national interests. He said Visegrád countries had strengthened and the IMF was on course to be led by a Bulgarian, he said.

Commenting on EU enlargement, he said western Europe had tired of it and explained away their own political and economic failure by blaming it on the previous round of enlargement.

Had the EU integrated Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, illegal migrants would not have reached Germany in 2015, he argued, adding that he sought to convince EU leaders of the importance of enlargement, noting a joint statement by the Visegrád group’s prime ministers at their recent Prague summit in its favour.

Commenting on the post of commissioner for the protection of the European way of life, Orbán said it was “sad” that some people were attacking the portfolio. The chief responsibility of every politician, he insisted, was to protect people’s way of life. He added that the debate was over nature of migration and most Europeans saw it as a threat.