With still no resolution in the months-long diplomatic row between Brussels and Budapest over the latter’s alleged violation of European Union asylum rules, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán doubled down on his government’s previous rhetoric, saying he would begin bussing illegal migrants straight to the EU capital if the Commission insists on collecting hundreds of millions of euros in accumulated fines—despite Budapest’s willingness to implement the reforms being demanded.
Orbán stated in his parliamentary speech on Monday, September 30th:
If Brussels persists in its decision to punish us, it will get what it wants. We will take the migrants who are banging on Hungary’s gates to the main square in Brussels.
The remark is significant since it was the first time the prime minister himself repeated the threat that was, initially, exclusively made by several of his government officials. The idea itself is similar to that of some U.S. Republican lawmakers, started by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who sent around fifty Venezuelan migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, to draw attention to the Biden administration’s “failed asylum policies.”
The current dispute began in June when the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that Hungary’s law requiring asylum seekers to register their claims while still outside the country and deporting those caught entering illegally was violating EU norms. The ECJ slapped a €200 million fine on Budapest, plus €1 million for each day the reforms are not implemented. By now, this has accumulated to more than an extra €100 million, atop the initial €200 million fine.
Last week, Hungary signaled readiness to implement the ECJ ruling but made clear that it will not pay the unprecedented fines, arguing that it was unfair to punish a member state for only doing its duty—as specified in the EU treaties—by protecting the bloc’s external borders.
Hungary’s EU affairs minister János Bóka also said that Budapest was exploring “legal options” to get reimbursed for at least a portion of the €2 billion it has spent on border protection since 2015, when the European migration crisis began. Such funds could be used to “offset” the fines if no other solution is reached.
The suggestion of giving migrants a “one-way ticket to Brussels” infuriated leftist lawmakers in the EU bubble, especially Belgian officials who slammed the move as a “provocation that contradicts European obligations,” referring to the soon-to-be-replaced ‘Dublin regulation’ that says asylum seekers need to be taken care of in the country where they first entered the EU.
EU member states have long criticized the Dublin regulation for failing to prevent secondary movements within the Schengen zone, which allows for borderless travel. Additionally, frontline countries like Spain, Italy, and Greece have been reluctant to take back asylum seekers who move further into the EU.
According to Orbán, and conservative lawmakers in general, the main problem is the lack of sufficient external border protection. Unless the EU starts conducting asylum procedures outside of its borders, reinstating internal borders—as has been happening in Germany and elsewhere—would be the only way to stop migrants from illegally disappearing into Schengen.
“The era of free movement is coming to an end,” Orbán said in his speech, referring to new border checks coming up every week. The prime minister added that all the EU should have done to avoid its current predicament was to “follow the Hungarian example and not let in the migrants in the first place.”
Yet, even though Budapest’s position was “proved right” over the course of the last decade and countries like Germany, France, and Sweden are now beginning to implement similar solutions, he said, Hungary is still being punished for “defending Europe’s borders.”
