In the message he recorded in Brussels, the Prime Minister said that “the people want us to defend the borders, and thus to defend their security. They want us to complete the procedures related to those [migrants] who are already in Europe, and to take them back to their countries. Up until now European leaders have not been willing to do this, which is why European democracy is in trouble.”
He said that the stakes are high, as the question is whether we will succeed in restoring democracy in Europe. Democracy has faltered in Europe, he stressed, because European leaders are not doing what the people want and expect them to do. He added that he was expecting heated debate at the two-day EU summit, which began that afternoon.
Mr. Orbán took the view that, at the debate on migration on Thursday evening, an agreement could be reached on the imposition of full border defence along the European Union’s entire external border, and on the setting up of refugee camps outside the territory of the EU.
He said that “With this we will still not have solved the problems, but we will have taken an important step forward. Today I will fight for this, because this is also what the Hungarian people want. Success to Hungary!”
The Prime Minister also said that before the summit meeting he had had talks with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, and he had convened the Visegrád countries, who had received President of France Emmanuel Macron.
In Brussels on Thursday afternoon a two-day EU summit began, in which the main items for discussion by the heads of state and government of the EU Member States were identified as a common migration and refugee policy, the next multiannual financial framework, and economic and trade issues.