‘Europe Is Facing a Battlefield of Migration’ Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán Claims

Viktor Orban (Credit Image: © Jakob Ratz/Pacific Press via ZUMA Wire)

During his Easter Sunday speech Mr Orbán called for European leaders to “preserve the foundations of Europe” and to stop “allowing migrants to flood us”.

He said: “Today we live in a time when international politics is a battlefield.

“The independence and freedom of European nations are at stake. And at the centre of the battlefield is migration.”

The tough-talking prime minster is currently battling the European Union over claims Hungary is not taking its fair share of migrants.

Mr Orbán continued: “This is what our future stands or falls on, the fate of Europe. The question is whether the character of European nations will be determined by the same spirit, civilisation, culture and mentality as in our parents’ and grandparents’ time, or by something completely different.

“We want to preserve the foundations of Europe. We do not want parallel societies, we do not want population exchanges, and we do not want to replace Christian civilisation with a different kind.

“Therefore we [Hungary] are building fences, defending ourselves, and not allowing migrants to flood us.”

Hungary, joined by Poland, have so far refused to take part in an EU scheme to spread 160,000 migrants from Italy and Greece across of the European nations.

Speaking about the opposition he has faced Mr Orbán said: “National governance in Hungary is under continuous pressure and attack… the most important thing at stake is whether we will have a parliament and a government that will seek to serve the best interests of the Hungarian people, or a parliament and a government that will seek to serve foreign interests.

“If we were to accept that Brussels or other political and financial centres should dictate to us, or that Hungarian or American billionaires should tell us how things should be in our country, then we would have no conflicts.”

Orbán, a great admirer of the late British prime minister, quoted Margaret Thatcher: “I always cheer up immensely if one is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.”