Brussels forces us to live with people we don’t want to live with – Hungarian leader
HARDLINE Hungarian leader Viktor Orban has insisted HUNGARIANS alone will chose “who they want to live with” and that it’s none of Brussels' business.
Hungarian PM wants 'exclusive control' of migration
Mr Orban showed no signs of softening his stance on immigration as Hungarians prepare to go to the polls in a referendum on the EU’s controversial refugee quota system.
Voters will be asked: "Do you want the European Union to be able to mandate the obligatory resettlement of non-Hungarian citizens into Hungary even without the approval of the National Assembly?"
And Mr Orban, a longstanding and fierce critic of the EU's response to the migrant crisis, expects the answer to be an overwhelming No.
Orban: EU must stop deceiving nation states
Viktor Orban/migrants on the Serbian-Hungarian border
A Hungarian soldier patrols the fence erected along the Serbian border
We shall not allow them to take away our right as Hungarians to have exclusive control over the question of who we want to live with here in Hungary and who we don’t want to live with
He said: "We shall not allow them to take away our right as Hungarians to have exclusive control over the question of who we want to live with here in Hungary and who we don’t want to live with.
"The biggest risk at the moment is that Brussels can settle migrants in our country who we don't want to live with.
"There are other countries that didn't protect themselves and where there are millions of migrants at the moment.
"A few countries want to ease their own problem by 'spacing' these millions in other countries.
"That's what we call forced or compulsory settlement which we have to prevent at all costs."
Razor wire barricades are erecting on Hungary's border with Croatia
Mr Orban insisted Hungary would not give up the final say on who was allowed into the country.
He said: “We shall not allow them to take away our right as Hungarians to have exclusive control over the question of who we want to live with here in Hungary and who we don’t want to live with.
"The problem now is not so much with the migrants, but rather with Brussels which wants to relocate to Hungary people with whom we do not want to live."
The EU wants to force Hungary to take take in refugees
He continued: "I want the citizens of Hungary to treat the migrant crisis as the cruel reality, as a question that is in connection with our security, the threat of terrorism and Hungary's cultural identity.
"And if we treat it like that, it is not a party political question, but a national one."
"If we want to help everyone by letting them to the countries in Europe providing them with a better life, we are destroying Europe and Hungary too."
"If we are looking at the migration crisis from a distance, with the referendum we are searching for an answer to the question: Who are we? Who do we want to become?"