The Hungarian Prime Minister’s Political Director Balázs Orbán defended his government’s migration policies on Tuesday, September 10th, after Hungary came under fire for promising to bus migrants to Brussels.
“Hungary has been protecting the European Union’s external borders without any financial support from Brussels; what we received instead was political and financial blackmail. This nonsense must stop now!” Balázs Orbán wrote on his X account.
The conservative government has been defending its southern borders—which are also the European Union and the Schengen Area’s external borders—from an invasion of migrants for the past nine years, erecting a fence on its border with Serbia.
Not only did Hungary not receive any financial help from Brussels, but it was also punished with a hefty fine for defending its borders. Instead of allowing migrants to enter Hungary illegally,it makes them claim asylum outside Hungary’s borders.
On Friday, Bence Rétvári, the interior ministry’s state secretary warned that if the EU forces Hungary to admit illegal migrants, they will be offered free transport to Brussels by Hungary. The official held a press conference in front of a row of passenger buses with illuminated signs reading “Röszke-Brussels,” signalling a one-way route that would take migrants from the southern border of Hungary to the EU capital.
The initiative mirrors similar moves by Republican governors in the United States, who since 2022 have bused or flown undocumented immigrants to Democratic strongholds like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, in protest at federal asylum procedures.
The Hungarian threat was met with indignation in Brussels, with the left-wing mayor of the city, Philippe Close, and Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib calling it a “provocation.”
Belgium’s migration minister Nicole de Moor said Hungary’s threat “undermines solidarity and cooperation” within the EU.
Balázs Orbán countered the criticism by saying
We are not threatening anyone but trying to make you understand the consequences of your failed immigration policy over the past 10 years.
Hungary also has its supporters on the issue.
Georges-Louis Bouchez, leader of the francophone liberal Mouvement Réformateur (MR) came out in defence of Hungary’s strategy. In response to the Mayor of Brussels’s tweet, Bouchez posted on social media: “Aren’t you the ones who want to welcome all migrants in your great generosity? Hungary is right to make the progressive left feel the real effects of its (migration) policies.”
Herbert Kickl, the leader of the Freedom Party of Austria—which is expected to win the national elections at the end of September—also praised Hungary, declaring on Facebook that other countries should join its initiative:
If the Brussels bureaucrats want to have migrants, then they should kindly welcome them into their own home.
