Hungary tells EU: You can’t turn us into a ‘country of immigrants’

THE EU was accused yesterday of trying to transform Hungary into an ‘immigrant country’.

And its prime minister said it would not accept a European Court of Justice ruling that it should open its borders to refugees under a relocation scheme.

After days of diplomatic clashes following the ECJ ruling that Hungary had to take part in the scheme, Viktor Orban yesterday accused Jean-Claude Juncker of trying to change its culture and history.

He told the European Commission president: ‘Hungary … is not an immigrant country, does not want to become an immigrant country and cannot accept being forced to change this.’

Brussels has been involved in a row with several eastern European member states over their refusal to take 120,000 refugees living in Italy and Greece since the height of 2015’s migrant influx.

Earlier this week the ECJ struck out a joint challenge by Hungary and Slovakia to quash their involvement in the scheme. But Mr Orban reacted angrily to claims by EU officials that Hungary should par-

‘Against the will of citizens’

ticipate due to a sense of ‘solidarity’ with other member states.

In a letter to Mr Juncker, he said this would transform ‘Hungary into an immigrant country, against the will of Hungarian citizens’. ‘In my view this is not solidarity. It is violence,’ he said.

His robust defence following the EU’s demand that Hungary must start accepting refugees within weeks will come as little surprise due to Mr Orban’s increasingly hard-line approach to immigration.

He has described immigration as a ‘poison’ and the ‘Trojan Horse of terrorism’, while also overseeing the construction of wall along its border with Serbia.

Brussels has insisted that the controversial scheme, which faced a shambolic implementation, is necessary to help deal with the 1.6 million people who have arrived in Greece and Italy since 2014.

But Hungary, which would be expected to admit more than 2,300 refugees, has so far refused to accept a single refugee in a stance also adopted by Poland.