According to Gyorgy Bakondi, U.S. President Donald Trump cited Hungary’s migration policy—implemented since 2010—on several occasions during his election campaign as an example to follow. He also noted the important fact that Hungary’s procedures for managing migration were developed by the government with the views of Hungarian citizens in mind. He recalled that in 2015, when some 400,000 illegal migrants poured into the country, the government’s first step was to ask Hungarians whether they should allow this to continue, or shut down the border.
Regardless of political affiliation, an overwhelming majority of Hungarians at the time said that large groups of illegal migrants must be prevented from pouring into the country
– Mr. Bakondi stated.
Following that, we took the necessary steps—building the border fence, deploying police and military forces, and establishing a legal border barrier—all of which have produced tangible results,
– he added. According to PM Orban's chief domestic security advisor, the U.S. government is now adopting many of these same measures: using technical solutions, deploying the military to the border, and introducing a legal framework that effectively allows only those migrants to enter the country whose asylum applications—submitted outside the border—are approved. In response to a question from the program host, Mr. Bakondi confirmed that more and more European countries are aligning themselves with the principles of Hungary’s migration policy, with a growing number rejecting the EU's migration pact.
Hungary has opposed the pact from the beginning. Later, the Netherlands and then Poland also declared that they would not implement it,
– Mr. Bakondi reminded viewers. He added that in Austria and Germany, political changes driven by public dissatisfaction with the migration situation have made it necessary to shift national policy. Italy and the United Kingdom have also begun searching for new solutions.
If this happens in many nation-states, sooner or later it will be necessary for the European Council, the European Commission, and perhaps even the European Parliament to revisit the decisions they made hastily and without proper consideration a year ago,
– PM Orban’s chief advisor said. Speaking about the visit of the Israeli prime minister to Hungary, Mr. Bakondi remarked that since the Hamas attack on Israel, massive demonstrations—numbering in the tens or even hundreds of thousands—have become a regular occurrence throughout Western Europe, often featuring overt expressions of antisemitism.
This has never been typical in Hungary and, with the recently declared policy of zero tolerance, such phenomena do not exist in Hungarian society today. The Jewish community living here is safe,
– He noted that in Western Europe, Muslim–Jewish tensions—which were previously uncommon—have now emerged, manifesting in violent incidents that can be felt across all levels of society.
Cover photo: Gyorgy Bakondi, Chief Internal Security Advisor to the Prime Minister (Photo: MTI)
