Hungary on collision course with EU over far-right plan to BAN all settlement of migrants
MIGRANTS could be banned from settling in Hungary outright under highly controversial plans being put forward by a far-right nationalist party.
MPs in the country's parliament will be asked to vote on a contentious constitutional change designed to reduce the number of foreigners settling in the country.
The far-right opposition party, Jobbik, is set to resubmit a bill that would prevent migrants from settling in the Eastern European nation in a move which would once more put Budapest on a collision course with Brussels.
Voters in Hungary recently rejected the European Union's migrant quota plan to resettle asylum seekers across all of its 28 member states, sparking a furious confrontation with eurocrats.
And now the country could be set to ruffle feathers once more with Jobbik set to resubmit a constitutional amendment was originally put before parliament last week, but failed to get the two thirds majority needed to force it through.
The amendment was actually initially proposed by controversial Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, but was voted down by Jobbik because it wanted the government to scrap a controversial cash-to-live scheme in return for its support.
The Hungarian government currently has a so-called residency bond system in place whereby immigrants can pay around €300,000 to become a resident, which is popular with many Chinese migrants.
Mr Orban initially refused to give way to Jobbik's demand and instead said on Friday that the government would not resubmit the law.
But the far-right party is now trying to change his mind.
Its leader, Gabor Vona, has said that if the cash-focussed migration scheme is scrapped, he will re-table and then vote to pass Mr Orban's original constitutional change.
Hungary will 'never accept mandatory quota' for migrants
He said: "We have always been against the residency bonds.
"With the plebiscite after the referendum we received an opportunity to raise this issue in a much more powerful way.
"It is downright absurd that just two weeks ago, after an anti-immigrant campaign that cost Hungarian taxpayers 15 billion forints, the government opened a residency bond sales point in Iraq, not far from the centre of ISIS."
Such a scenario would effectively make it impossible for any immigrants to settle in Hungary.
Mr Vona has also repeatedly accused the government of corruption, a claim Mr Orban strongly denies.
The Prime Minister has said the amendment was needed to honour an October referendum, in which more than three million Hungarians, an overwhelming majority of those who voted, rejected EU quotas stipulating how many migrants member states must accept.
Tensions have been running high in Hungary, with anti-migration marches taking place across the country.