Hungary has raised the stakes in its spat over migration with Brussels, showing off the buses it said it could use to send migrants to the capital of the European Union.
Parliamentary Secretary of State of the Human Resources Ministry Bence Retvari, on September 6, presented a fleet of the yellow vehicles he said could be deployed by Budapest for migrant delivery.
“If the European Union forces Hungary to let in illegal immigrants, it will offer migrants to be transported to Brussels free of charge,” Rétvári said at a press conference.
🚨 If the European Union forces Hungary to admit illegal migrants, Hungary will offer free transport to Brussels after completing the EU legal procedures – declared Parliamentary State Secretary Bence Rétvári during a press conference. He emphasized that Hungary, by securing its… pic.twitter.com/tukcZ8qS3n
— Zoltan Kovacs (@zoltanspox) September 6, 2024
He reiterated that Hungary was protecting not only its own borders but also Europe’s external ones with its policies. He claimed that, since 2015, the Hungarian southern border fence and the country’s border guards have prevented around 1 million people from entering the EU.
“Yet the Court of Justice of the European Union [CJEU] has imposed a ‘disproportionate, unjust’ and ‘gigantic’ fine on Hungary, with which they want to force the country to let illegal immigrants in en masse and to give up its migration policy so far,” Rétvári said.
In mid-June, the ECJ ordered Hungary to pay €200 million plus a penalty of €1 million per day if it did not comply with the court’s ruling of December 2020 that the country must abide by “European Union law”. That announcement caused outrage in Hungary.
Rétvári said Hungary was looking at filing a counter-lawsuit with the CJEU for reimbursement of costs related to border protection.
He pointed out that the Mayor of Brussels, Philippe Close, had already reacted negatively to the Hungarian threats and warned it would turn the everyday lives of Brussels residents upside down.
Rétvári said stopping migrants at the borders served exactly that purpose for everyday Hungarians.
Deputy High Commissioner of the National Police responsible for Law Enforcement, János Kuczik, was also at the press conference. He stressed that since 2015, significant efforts had been made to prevent illegal migrants from entering the country.
He also pointed out that both migrants and people smugglers have attacked border guards, damaged the border fence and endangered Hungarians.
Speaking at the 50th Cernobbio Forum in Italy, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also spoke about problems with mass migration.
He pleaded for an opt-out of the European migration policy because he claimed it did not work. Orbán said what he called the one-size-fits-all migration policy caused conflict and was tearing the EU apart.
This Summer has proved that #migration is tearing the European Union apart. Let Hungary and others have an opt-out of the common migration policy! #Cernobbio2024 @Ambrosetti_ pic.twitter.com/P9yHB5Ecnf
— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) September 6, 2024
