Deputy Minister of the Interior: “If Brussels wants illegal migrants, Brussels can have them”
The Hungarian Deputy Minister of the Interior, Bence Rétvári, chose to hold a press conference in front of a pair of yellow buses.
The plan is for the buses to go to Brussels and be filled with migrants.
– If Brussels wants illegal migrants, Brussels can get them, says Rétvári.
This summer, the EU fined Hungary for violating the Union’s asylum rules on several occasions. The fine was 200 million euros and a million is added for each day that Hungary does not fix the problem, reports AP.
The Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, described the fine as “outrageous and unacceptable”.
Offers free bus travel
Already in August, the Hungarian government started talking about a proposal to bus migrants to Brussels. This week there was a clear message from the Deputy Minister of the Interior, Bence Rétvári.
– If Brussels wants illegal migrants, Brussels can have them, Rétvári said.
Standing in front of a pair of yellow buses, marked with a departure from the Hungarian border town of Röszke and final destination Brussels, Rétvári gave a clear indication of how Hungary wants to act.
– If the EU and Brussels want to force Hungary to let in illegal migrants, the ones we have so far stopped a million times at Hungary’s southern border, then after the implementation of the EU’s process, Hungary will offer the illegal migrants a voluntary, free one-way ticket to Brussels .
Rétvári believes that if the migrants can move freely on the territory of Hungary, they can also move freely within the EU.
– There is no obstacle that stops them from taking these buses and traveling to Brussels from Budapest.
Belgium strikes back: A provocation
From the Belgian side, the Hungarian statements and the bus plans have been criticized. The Belgian foreign minister, Hadja Lahbib, calls it a “provocation that goes against European obligations”.
“Migration policy is a common challenge that must be met in a proper way and in solidarity from all member states,” wrote Lahbib on X.
Lahbib is nominated to become Belgium’s next EU commissioner and has previously taken a harsh tone against Hungary. She proposed, among other things, that Hungary should lose its right to vote in the EU.
Hungary took over the presidency of the EU earlier this summer and has been heavily criticized ever since. among other things after Prime Minister Orbán’s visit to Russia and President Putin. Among other things, the EU Commission chose not to travel to Budapest and boycott Hungary’s presidency.