On Monday, Orbán said: “Our borders are under threat, as is our way of life, which is based on respecting laws. Hungary and Europe are under threat. What is happening now, is we are being overrun, invaded. This is a European daily experience. Those who have been overrun cannot take these people in.”
A former top diplomat with a party now in the opposition (MSZP) predicts the present government’s position will remain firm.
Péter Balázs told euronews: “This resolution reflects the current parliamentary majority position on the crisis. This is a hostile, anti-refugee resolution.”
A government billboard and poster campaign proclaims: “The people have decided the country must be defended.”
Hungarian opinion polls suggest that this policy has boosted the number of Orbán’s supporters, even while it leaves other European leaders frowning.
The head of Ipsos Zrt. Opinion Research, Tibor Závecz, said: “When the summer started, 1.6 million voters supported Fidesz, 20 percent of the population. This has increased by 300,000 — four percentage points.”
The Hungarian government’s criticism of its EU partner countries backstops its resolute fence-building to secure its portion of the bloc’s outer borders and apply EU entry rules.
Budapest euronews correspondent Attila Magyar said: “Ten countries’ ambassadors have been invited for talks at the foreign ministry in the past few weeks — underscoring the tensions — and yet many Hungarian experts agree that the ministry’s messages are not being sent to foreign countries but, indirectly, to the Hungarian people.”
More about:
