Entries RSS Feed Share Send to Facebook Tweet This Accessible version

Dispute over the UN’s role in migration

March 6th, 2018

A pro-government columnist accuses the United Nations of trying to help the Left in the April election. A conservative critic of the government thinks the Fidesz campaign against the UN is doomed to failure. 

Last week, the government put up new giant billboards, with the message: it is up to Hungary rather than the UN, to take decisions on immigration. 

Magyar Idők’s Gergely Kiss accuses the United Nations of assisting the left-wing parties in the election campaign. The pro-government commentator suspects that the UN wants to put pressure on Hungary, hoping that if Fidesz is defeated, a new left-wing government would adopt migrant redistribution quotas. This, Kiss thinks, would weaken Hungary’s sovereignty and change Hungary’s demographic composition for good. Kiss believes that the UN wants migrant redistribution to help Western European countries that are facing immense difficulties in handling the migrant crisis.

In Magyar Nemzet, Szabolcs Szerető thinks that the government wants to make an enemy of the UN, after realizing that its anti-Soros campaign is no longer effective. After the Hódmezővásárhely fiasco, Fidesz is looking for new mobilization tools to secure its victory at the April election, Szerető believes. He goes on to accuse Fidesz of identifying not only the UN, but also the Roma as potential enemies, tools with which to mobilize its core support. Last week in Miskolc, in the context of remarks about  the dangers of migration, PM Orbán said that even ‘internal migration’  by members of Hungary’s large Roma community can cause severe social tension. Szerető predicts that the Fidesz campaign targeting the UN is doomed to failure, as the UN is a distant, powerless and impersonal institution.

Tags: , , ,