PM Orbán’s crucial announcement about how long guest workers may stay in Hungary

In an interview yesterday, PM Orbán addressed the current situation of guest workers in Hungary. When asked about his relationship with former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, he reflected on the migration wave that – according to his opinion, transformed Germany. Taking the opportunity to touch upon Hungary’s migration policies, Orbán revealed how long his government intends to allow guest workers to stay in the country. The key factor behind this decision is the availability of vacant jobs.

Kohl would not recognise today’s Germany

Orbán answered on a question about former German chancellor Helmuth Kohl that he “would not recognise today’s Germany.” Before the migrant crisis, “Germany was the strongest state in Europe, but migration destroyed them,” he said. They often say that the decline in competitiveness is not due to migration; some may argue that migration did not drain Europe of its competitiveness, “but that things are interconnected”, he said, adding that German identity “was shaken when they took in so many migrants … and said that Islam is part of German culture.”

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“We must learn from this mistake,” he said. “The Germany that existed before [migrants] were allowed in has gone, because this is now their Germany too,” he added.

Orbán said he was “upset” about the issue since “I’m usually a gentle person; even pious, and I try to agree with everyone”. Nevertheless, he added, migrants “cannot be allowed here and can never be accepted; they must not be given any legal status because … there [would be] no way back.”

He said he did not want Hungary “to end up like this, so we must resist until our last breath.”

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Here is how long Orbán would let guest workers to remain in Hungary

Foreign workers, he added, must only be allowed to stay in Hungary “for a limited time”. The law on guest workers “is as strict as possible … and keeps as many rights as possible in the hands of the government,” he said. If there are no vacant jobs, workers from abroad are not allowed in, he said, “because Hungary belongs to Hungarians” and Hungarians enjoy a priority over jobs.

Germany had not succeeded in defending itself, he said, “not only because of the large number of migrants” after 2015, “but because the Germans shut down the debate on migration in a self-sacrificing way”.

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