Economy
Hungary-Luxembourg give-and-take continues over refugees
Asked what he thinks about Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade playing him down as a frivolous character and a condescending, arrogant and frustrated person, Jean Asselborn replied that considering what the point of the matter is this does not help to make progress. At the same time, he understands the reaction for his call for Hungary’s expulsion from the EU was a “rude outcry".
He stressed he did not mean to judge any people or country, but he intended to point out that “a government policy could exist in the European Union that places a country outside the values shared above all by the EU therefore it makes no sense for it to remain member of the EU."
Addressing the campaign leading up to Hungary’s referendum on the EU’s resettlement quotas on 2 October, Asselborn noted that “a propagandistic hysteria broke out" in Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orbán talks about an “imperial bureaucracy in Brussels" aiming for “the destruction of the Christian West", and one of his fellow party members [György Schöpflin] wants to hang severed pig heads along border fences to deter Muslim refugees and migrants from entering the country.
“This is exactly what is against not only the EU Treaty but the culture of values upon which Europe was built after 1945, and you either swallow this or cry out against it." Asselborn said.
Asselborn was also asked whether former Luxembourg President and current President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker’s tax policy granting allowances to mammoth enterprises to the tune of billions of euros is as harmful to the EU as Orbán’s strategy on refugees. To this he replied that Luxembourg has undergone fundamental changes and it is on the right track, co-operating with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to make tax issues more transparent, hence “bank secrets ceased to be the concept Luxembourg is making its living from."
"[Those] who build fences against refugees from war like Hungary does, or who violate press freedom and judicial independence, should be excluded temporarily or, if necessary, for ever from the EU," Asselborn told German daily Die Welt on Tuesday, adding it was "the only way to preserve the cohesion and values of the EU."
Asselborn said humans fleeing from war were being treated almost worse than wild animals.
"The fence that Hungary is building to keep out refugees is getting longer, higher and more dangerous. Hungary is not far from issuing an order to shoot refugees," he said.
The remark was intended to be a wakeup call before the extraordinary EU summit in Bratislava on Friday, he told German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung on Wednesday.
Regardless how he tries to deny it “Jean Asselborn launched a vile attack against Hungary," commented Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade in an email to Portfolio on Wednesday.
Péter Szijjártó noted it is a “shocking fact" that Hungary is now the subject from an attack also from within over its “defense against the dangers of illegal migration".
He said the remarks by Asselborn and European Parliament President Martin Schulz “gravely deepen the crisis of Europe."
Szijjártó said neither of them are “interested in the Hungarian people, or the rule of law and democracy."
“Their only interest is to have as many illegal immigrants in Europe as possible," he added.
The minister argues that they “exclude and condemn" anyone who begs to differ. “This is unacceptable; this is not how a European behaves. The Hungarian government will do everything in its power to make sure Europe does not continue down on this path."
He stressed he did not mean to judge any people or country, but he intended to point out that “a government policy could exist in the European Union that places a country outside the values shared above all by the EU therefore it makes no sense for it to remain member of the EU."
Addressing the campaign leading up to Hungary’s referendum on the EU’s resettlement quotas on 2 October, Asselborn noted that “a propagandistic hysteria broke out" in Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orbán talks about an “imperial bureaucracy in Brussels" aiming for “the destruction of the Christian West", and one of his fellow party members [György Schöpflin] wants to hang severed pig heads along border fences to deter Muslim refugees and migrants from entering the country.
“This is exactly what is against not only the EU Treaty but the culture of values upon which Europe was built after 1945, and you either swallow this or cry out against it." Asselborn said.
Asselborn was also asked whether former Luxembourg President and current President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker’s tax policy granting allowances to mammoth enterprises to the tune of billions of euros is as harmful to the EU as Orbán’s strategy on refugees. To this he replied that Luxembourg has undergone fundamental changes and it is on the right track, co-operating with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to make tax issues more transparent, hence “bank secrets ceased to be the concept Luxembourg is making its living from."
"[Those] who build fences against refugees from war like Hungary does, or who violate press freedom and judicial independence, should be excluded temporarily or, if necessary, for ever from the EU," Asselborn told German daily Die Welt on Tuesday, adding it was "the only way to preserve the cohesion and values of the EU."
Asselborn said humans fleeing from war were being treated almost worse than wild animals.
"The fence that Hungary is building to keep out refugees is getting longer, higher and more dangerous. Hungary is not far from issuing an order to shoot refugees," he said.
The remark was intended to be a wakeup call before the extraordinary EU summit in Bratislava on Friday, he told German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung on Wednesday.
Regardless how he tries to deny it “Jean Asselborn launched a vile attack against Hungary," commented Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade in an email to Portfolio on Wednesday.
Péter Szijjártó noted it is a “shocking fact" that Hungary is now the subject from an attack also from within over its “defense against the dangers of illegal migration".
He said the remarks by Asselborn and European Parliament President Martin Schulz “gravely deepen the crisis of Europe."
Szijjártó said neither of them are “interested in the Hungarian people, or the rule of law and democracy."
“Their only interest is to have as many illegal immigrants in Europe as possible," he added.
The minister argues that they “exclude and condemn" anyone who begs to differ. “This is unacceptable; this is not how a European behaves. The Hungarian government will do everything in its power to make sure Europe does not continue down on this path."
