Miklos Szantho: Hungary Has Chosen the Right Path

Hungary today is the last safe country in Europe, but its future depends on whether it can withstand pro-migration forces. That was the common conclusion of several leading international conservative commentators who gathered at the Center for Fundamental Rights’ event titled Just One Bad Choice?, where they discussed the consequences of migration and the dangers of political pressure from Brussels. The guests were Dutch lawyer and political influencer Eva Vlaardingerbroek, and Austrian columnist Gerald Grosz, whose latest best-selling book dissects the failure of Angela Merkel’s migration policy. Miklos Szantho, Director General of the Center for Fundamental Rights spoke about the key takeaways in an interview with Magyar Nemzet.

Szánthó Miklós, az Alapjogokért Központ főigazgatója Forrás: MTI

In the interview, Miklos Szantho, Director General of the Center for Fundamental Rights, explained among other things why they considered it important to present Gerald Grosz's top-selling book.

Hungary supports family policy instead of migration and that means Hungary has chosen the right path, emphasized Miklos Szantho, Director General of the Center for Fundamental Rights

"Ten years ago, hordes of migrants stormed Hungary’s border at Roszke. They flooded the country and even Budapest. For a short time, we saw what a miniature caliphate could look like. That’s when we decided to protect Hungary with a physical and legal border closure. And we continue to refuse to become an immigration country. That is why we invited Gerald Grosz, a leading expert on migration, and Eva Vlaardingerbroek, a Dutch influencer who is also an expert on the subject. It is important to talk about how Western Europe made the wrong choice ten years ago and is still paying the price for it. We especially need to talk about this now because Peter Magyar and the Tisza Party would follow the same Brussels instructions on migration that have failed in other countries. That is why they are launching baseless and vile smear campaigns — to shake public confidence, sow chaos, and gain political advantage. But we will not let that happen," Szantho said. 

The Director General of the Center for Fundamental Rights highlighted the social changes brought about by migration, warning that the problem persists and continues to cause severe difficulties across Western Europe. "The 2015 migration crisis merely brought to the surface the serious social trends that had been unfolding in Europe since the 1950s and ’60s, when immigration from other continents first began," he said. "These issues have never gone away but got pushed into the background by new crises. The issue of migration was first overshadowed by climate panic, then by the Covid pandemic, and later by the turmoil of the war in Ukraine, but the phenomenon itself has not disappeared." 

On the contrary. The last ten years — marked by terrorist attacks, the collapse of public safety in Western Europe, the rise of no-go zones, growing numbers of migration-linked sexual crimes, and ever more severe anti-Semitic and anti-Christian incidents — show that the problem has become deeply embedded in Western Europe’s everyday life.

Western Europe Is Lost

Asked whether the migration crisis in Western Europe can be reversed, Miklos Szantho said: "In my view, this process is no longer reversible. They made one bad decision, and Western Europe is finished."

He added that while there may still be debate over whether all of Western Europe has fallen, or 'only' its major cities have become unlivable, Hungary must avoid even that and make sure that Budapest or other big cities never become immigrant cities.

Szantho took the view that the real turning point did not come in 2015 with Merkel’s Willkommenskultur, but much earlier, with a political decision made decades ago.

The liberal-globalist elite of Western Europe decided long ago that they would solve their labor and demographic problems through migration. They had the illusion that cheap labor would boost the economy, and that new taxpayers would sustain the welfare state, the pension system, and healthcare.

"But now it is clear that this strategy has failed," Szantho said. "Even from a purely financial perspective, the migration balance is clearly negative. Germany spends 50 billion euros a year on migration-related costs while Austria spends two billion. That is a massive burden on national budgets and the social consequences are even worse."

Hungary Chose the Right Path by Supporting Families Instead of Migration

The experiences of recent years clearly prove that Hungary made the right decision when it chose to support family policy and encourage childbirth instead of taking in migrants, Miklos Szantho underlined.

Hungary chose the right patch. It’s now clear that strengthening families and protecting our borders is far more sustainable and secure than unchecked mass migration,

said the Director General of the Center for Fundamental Rights. "Hungary introduced legal and physical border protection in time. But we must also see that Brussels’ political elite have allies in Hungary and they support the EU’s migration pact," he added.

According to Szantho, there is no doubt that Peter Magyar and the Tisza Party represent the same ideological circles domestically that have long sought to tear down Hungary’s border fence.

"In the European Parliament, they voted for the resolution welcoming the daily one-million-euro fine imposed on Hungary due to its border protection," he said. "And they’ve called the southern border fence a useless prestige project that’s not needed."

The Director General pointed out that it is no coincidence that the Tisza Party is a member of Manfred Weber's European People's Party, which has consistently promoted pro-migration policies for many years.

Peter Magyar and His Party Are Brussels' Henchmen

According to Miklos Szantho, it is no coincidence that in recent years the Hungarian government, and Viktor Orban personally, have come under constant and increasingly powerful attacks on political, legal and media fronts.

Let there be no doubt that whenever we see coordinated political or legal attacks and smear campaigns against the Hungarian right, their goal is always the same: to undermine public trust, delegitimize the government, and ultimately bring Peter Magyar and his allies to power,

said the Director General of the Center for Fundamental Rights. He emphasized that this pressure is not random but serves the purpose of preparing
the ground for carrying out Brussels’ expectations — on migration, for example. "The job of a Tisza government would be to implement those migration-related demands that Brussels has long tried to force on Hungary," Miklos Szantho warned. 

Miklos Szantho, Director General of the Center for Fundamental Rights (Photo: Balazs Ladoczki)