Hungary and Poland oppose EU migration pact
July 4th, 2023Pro-government commentators reject the planned relocation mechanism for asylum seekers from frontline states to other EU member countries, while a left-wing columnist believes that the idea will be pushed through, despite Hungarian and Polish resistance.
Magyar Nemzet devotes two comments to the issue in as many days. Both authors argue that the mechanism would place Hungary in danger of following France’s example, where violence erupted in dozens of cities due to the unresolved integration problems of millions of immigrants and their descendants.
László Szőcs writes that most immigrants in France speak French at least, as they come from former French colonies. Hungary, on the other hand, would find it even more difficult to integrate the ‘tens of thousands of unlawful immigrants’ Brussels would relocate here, he believes.
Levente Sitkei remarks that human trafficking is thriving because of the lax attitude of the European Commission which ignores the violence engulfing French cities because political correctness prevents it from recognising the link between unlawful immigration and crime.
In Népszava, Tamás Rónay writes that although Hungary and Poland prevented last week’s EU summit from adopting a joint statement on immigration, the relocation mechanism will be introduced once passed by the European Parliament. Then Hungary will have to either process the asylum requests for its share of immigrants or pay 20 thousand euros for each of them. The only result the government achieved by opposing that solution, Rónay adds, was to further alienate Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni who until recently was PM Orbán’s ally.