The Prime Minister said that a large part of Europe is increasingly composed of immigrant countries, and migrants are “besieging” the entire continent. He stated that “the question is whether we can keep ourselves out of this, whether we can preserve our culture, our Christian culture, our Hungarian culture and how we live – our way of life”, and maintain a future promising great prospects. He reaffirmed: “I do not want Hungary to become an immigrant country”.

In his view, if the 2014 election had been won by some political formation other than Fidesz-KDNP – say the left, possibly with Jobbik – today there would be no fence, hundreds of thousands of migrants would still be roaming the streets of Hungary, the country would be full of migrant camps, there would be no public security and “we could have been the victim of terrorist attacks”.

As the situation is becoming ever more serious, he continued, everyone should carefully consider who they will vote for on election day. Mr. Orbán said that if Hungary yields to pressure exerted by the EU, accepts the UN’s “half-witted recommendations” and “we vote into government posts people who will dismantle the fence and let in immigrants, our development of the country will have been in vain: we won’t be able to make progress; in fact we’ll go into reverse”.

The Prime Minister also said that “the campaign means that there’s work to be done”: a start must be made on touring the country, seeing as many people as possible and meeting mayors. “In fact, I have already set out today, and I thought I couldn’t possibly find a better place to start the 2018 campaign than Eger”, he said. He observed that campaigns always involve “jostling” of some kind, and “a bit of a dustup”, but this is not the point of an election, which is in fact a celebration: the Hungarian people have the opportunity to decide what should happen to their country.

In a message to the people of Eger, he said that the agreement he had concluded with Mayor László Habis (Fidesz-KDNP) as part of the Modern Cities Programme was reviewed by them in their latest meeting, and they had concluded that “we are making good progress”.

In this context Mr. Orbán said that construction of the M25 dual carriageway had begun, and if Fidesz-KDNP win the election and the road reaches Eger, a bypass will also be built around the city.

He said that further funds would be allocated to Eger Castle, and unprecedentedly large-scale restoration programmes will be launched.

He also observed that Zsolt Nyitrai, the Fidesz-KDNP candidate for the parliamentary constituency of Eger, was among the first in the country to collect all the signatures necessary for his candidacy.

According to the Prime Minister, a city can work well with a Member of Parliament from an opposition party, but there is no doubt that matters are easier with a tried-and-tested mayor, a Member of Parliament from a government party and a council which sees Eger as a priority: this combination “can work wonders”.

At the end of the interview, the Prime Minister said that to round off his visit to Eger he would meet Fidesz-KDNP activists.