Miklos Szantho: One Bad Election, and Hungary Will Become a Migrant Country

All it takes is one bad election for Hungary to become a country of immigrants — any Hungarian who cares at all about their homeland’s interests wants to preserve Hungary’s security, said Miklos Szantho, Director General of the Center for Fundamental Rights, on Thursday in Budapest.

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

He said one of the Commission’s “accomplices” is Manfred Weber, leader of the European Parliament’s leftist-liberal majority, who believes that migration is necessary and that it’s “not such a big problem if European cities change a little.” Weber, he added, is a major supporter of Tisza Party chief Peter Magyar, who sits in the European People’s Party group. Szantho also noted that the EP’s “leftist-liberal majority” also recently protected Peter Magyar. 

The think tank director pointed out that 

Peter Magyar’s bosses are Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and Manfred Weber — they give him his instructions.

According to Szantho, the Tisza Party, following Weber’s orders, voted in favor of accelerating the migration pact and against providing Hungary with further funding for border protection. He added that a Tisza Party expert recently called Hungary’s border fence ‘a useless prestige investment.’

“This is the Brussels horror team that since last summer has been fining Hungary — a lump sum 200 million euros and another 1 million euros per day,” Szantho said. He pointed out that Hungary has already been fined 684 million euros (about 273 billion forints) for protecting its borders — effectively taking 104,000 forints from every Hungarian family’s pocket.

So Peter Magyar and his party have pulled off the dubious feat of making Hungarian families pay, even though they’re not even in government,

he said.

Szantho argued that recent events in Western Europe prove that “the biggest fake news in the world is that migration is good". “Anyone who thinks migration is good cares more about conforming to Brussels than about their own country’s interests,” he added.

He also announced a photo exhibition set up across from the European Commission’s representation office in Budapest, showing what migration meant for Hungary ten years ago in the southern border town of Roszke and at Keleti railway station in Budapest, and what it means today in Western Europe:

violence, terror, anti-Semitism, crime, anti-Christian and anti-Jewish sentiment, and no-go zones.

Commentator Bence Apati shared his experiences from Italian and French cities, saying that “something has gone terribly wrong in Western Europe.”
He recalled seeing migrant gangs chased by police in broad daylight, and being warned in Paris hotels not to enter certain districts after dark because they were too dangerous.
Apati also unveiled an empty donation globe, symbolizing how much Brussels has contributed to Hungary’s border defense — nothing.

Answering questions, Miklos Szantho said reality has proven that admitting migrants was a bad decision. Since 2015, more than 1,000 people have died in major terrorist attacks, and sexual crime rates have also risen across Western Europe.

Migration is a serious problem and burden for Western Europe — we in Hungary want no part of it,

Szantho stated, stressing that deciding to build legal and physical border barriers over the past decade proved to be the right decisions.

He also said the European Commission pursues an “emotion-driven” policy both on migration and on the war in Ukraine.

Earlier, international conservative commentators speaking at the Center for Fundamental Rights’ event “Just One Bad Choice?” agreed that Hungary is Europe’s last safe country, but its future depends on whether it can resist the pro-migration forces and the political pressure from Brussels.

Cover photo: Miklos Szantho, Director General of the Center for Fundamental Rights (Photo: MTI)