The video below is a follow-up to last night’s clips about the recent EU summit. This one is a longer excerpt from a press briefing given by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán after the summit, in which he talks about Hungary’s stance on mass immigration and the discussions about it at the summit.
Many thanks to CrossWare for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
Video transcript:
| 13:08 | Migration was the main issue | |
| 13:12 | this morning. | |
| 13:16 | Here is another meeting connected with it, | |
| 13:20 | and this was with the chairman of | |
| 13:24 | the Austrian People’s Party [ÖVP]: Mr. [Sebastian] Kurz. | |
| 13:28 | I met with him — yesterday — and we thoroughly discussed | |
| 13:32 | the issue of migration, which was a good thing, as today it was the main question. | |
| 13:36 | In essence, I still have to say | |
| 13:40 | the issue of migration ruled the | |
| 13:44 | whole summit. | |
| 13:48 | It is clearly visible | |
| 13:52 | that we were finally able to discuss the issues we agree on. | |
| 13:56 | Earlier the agenda items about migration always | |
| 14:00 | ended up in antler fights, | |
| 14:04 | because everybody immediately brought out their own weapon, | |
| 14:08 | what they do not agree on, so had very little consensus on anything, | |
| 14:12 | and no compromises, even on those questions | |
| 14:16 | on which we had no major disagreements. So we turned this around | |
| 14:20 | and didn’t discuss those questions we knew we would not agree on. | |
| 14:24 | One of those question is, what to do with those | |
| 14:28 | migrants — in my opinion, unwisely let in — | |
| 14:32 | who are already here. | |
| 14:36 | Well, there are countries that | |
| 14:40 | think these are solidarity and technical issues; | |
| 14:44 | they just want distribute them; they are waiting for someone to take those migrants | |
| 14:48 | away from them — by the way, they let them into their own countries — | |
| 14:52 | and there is another group of countries — Hungary is part of this second group — | |
| 14:56 | that does not see this as a technical and solidarity issue, but | |
| 15:00 | as a question of identity, and say it is impossible | |
| 15:04 | that anybody else might want to determine our countries’ identities, | |
| 15:08 | but we and those with whom we live: that is the identity of the country! | |
| 15:12 | We must not let anybody else have a say in this issue! | |
| 15:16 | We also never kept it a secret that we do not want to change our identity. | |
| 15:20 | We understand there are numerous countries, | |
| 15:24 | that have already changed; some member states | |
| 15:28 | have other identities. They have different identities, unlike us in Central Europe, | |
| 15:32 | for example Hungary, but that is no reason to follow them. We have the right not to follow them! | |
| 15:36 | We are ready to help the refugees | |
| 15:40 | where the trouble is, | |
| 15:44 | … built a fence and | |
| 15:48 | defend the internal territory of the EU. | |
| 15:52 | We are willing to do many things, but not to change our identity! | |
| 15:56 | So these types of questions were set aside today, because we would have again | |
| 16:00 | ended up where we usually do [stalemate]. | |
| 16:04 | Instead we discussed the external dimension, | |
| 16:08 | concentrated on the external correlations of the migration. | |
| 16:12 | We agreed that the external borders must be defended, | |
| 16:16 | and also that we must stop illegal migration, | |
| 16:20 | and we must cooperate with the | |
| 16:24 | countries of origin and transit countries. | |
| 16:28 | Here we had a protracted exchanged of ideas about Libya | |
| 16:32 | …The Hungarian point of view was | |
| 16:36 | that the unified opinion of the | |
| 16:40 | Italian and German Ministers of Internal Affairs is correct. | |
| 16:44 | I think nobody supported them so openly today besides us; | |
| 16:48 | Maybe the French President’s viewpoint was closest to ours. | |
| 16:52 | …because the German and Italian | |
| 16:56 | Ministers of Internal Affairs thinks we should go down to Libya. | |
| 17:00 | It is of course important to train, pay and support | |
| 17:04 | the Libyan border control force, too, but I think | |
| 17:08 | — they share my opinion — that in the end | |
| 17:12 | we must do the majority of the work. If we do not want | |
| 17:16 | huge masses to start heading in the direction of Europe, then we must solve this | |
| 17:20 | either on the southern or northern borders of Libya. | |
| 17:24 | Hungary announced that we support the Italian-German proposal | |
| 17:28 | that we set up checkpoints at the southern border of Libya | |
| 17:32 | and introduce a control system. Hungary is | |
| 17:36 | willing to participate in this, either with personnel or | |
| 17:40 | with financial support. | |
| 17:44 | Finally, we agreed that | |
| 17:48 | we must attempt to define the list of safe countries | |
| 17:52 | accepted by all member states of the EU. So far that has not succeeded; | |
| 17:56 | we didn’t succeed today, either, but | |
| 18:00 | we stated with a unified voice that we would like to succeed, | |
| 18:04 | so we gave ourselves some time to compile this list. | |
| 18:08 | I think the report of the Italian Prime Minister was important, | |
| 18:12 | who stated that in Italian waters | |
| 18:16 | NGOs and human smugglers are working together | |
| 18:20 | and organizing the importation of illegal masses into EU territory. | |
| 18:24 | The Prosecutor General — as I can see — | |
| 18:28 | is releasing daily statements about this; | |
| 18:32 | … the Italian Prime Minister | |
| 18:36 | asked for help, | |
| 18:40 | and we will not be proud that it — for example, those financial resources | |
| 18:44 | required to train the Libyan border defense force — | |
| 18:48 | is still not fully available. | |
| 18:52 | The Prime Minister asked for more | |
| 18:56 | dedication and solidarity, which we promised to him. |