EU summit must lead to change in PM policies – opposition

Budapest, September 24 (MTI) – Prime Minister Viktor Orban “has finally arrived at the politics of common sense”, and admitted that the migrant crisis can only be overcome with help from Europe, the Socialist Party said on Thursday.

Party leader Jozsef Tobias said Orban “finally realised” at Wednesday’s emergency EU summit focused on migration that the migrant crisis is not a “Hungarian problem” but a “European one”. Tobias applauded the prime minister’s “U-turn” in his handling of the crisis and “now represents what the Socialist Party has been saying for months”. He also applauded the EU’s decision to set aside 1 billion euros for handling the migrant crisis. He called for setting up hotspots not only in Greece but Hungary and Croatia as well.

The Democratic Coalition said Hungary must stop construction on its fences on the Romanian and Croatian borders and should tear down the one already built. MEP Csaba Molnar said that had Orban “suffered another defeat” at Wednesday’s EU summit after “losing the quota battle” on Tuesday.

Molnar said Orban was “visibly disappointed” during his press conference early on Thursday, as out of his six proposals, the only ones to be approved were those in line with the EC’s earlier proposals. Molnar said Orban “admitted that building fences” is a failed policy when he said that Hungary should consider letting refugees pass through the country.

The Dialogue for Hungary party said Orban had played “quite a marginal role” at the EU summit, as discussions were centred on commission president Jean-Claude Juncker’s proposals from two weeks ago rather than the six proposals put forward by him on Wednesday.

MEP Benedek Javor said it was “bad news” that Hungary does not wish to accept the help offered by the EU to frontline member states since now no hotspots will be set up in Hungary to ease the country’s migration pressure. He said the EU’s stance that Hungary should let migrants through to Austria and Germany “if it is only capable of building fences” is a sign that “nobody views Hungary as a cooperative partner”.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters