Orbán: Government of Hungary Obliged to “Defend the Constitutional Identity of the Country”

In his latest “samizdat” commentary, Prime Minister Orbán commented on the Hungarian Constitutional Court’s decision to recognize the precedence of Hungary’s Fundamental Law over the European Court of Justice regarding the question of Hungary’s responsibility toward illegal immigrants trying to enter the country.

The Prime Minister stressed that the Constitutional Court passed a ruling of “historical significance” when it (1) confirmed that the Government of Hungary has an obligation to “defend the constitutional identity of the country,” even if it goes against the verdict of the European Court; (2) declared that should EU institutions not exercise shared powers effectively, it is up to the Hungarian authorities to do so; and (3) underscored that the connection between migration and human dignity must also be considered from the point of view of the indigenous populations.

Mr. Orbán noted that what stands at the centre of the Constitutional Court’s ruling is human beings and their dignity. As opposed to international courts and progressive European societies, the ruling keeps intact the relationship of the individual to organic national, linguistic, cultural, familial, and religious communities. He sees the ruling as defending the vital interdependency of self- and communal identities, recognizing how the European Court’s decision would render “traditional communities becoming entirely defenceless.” The basic right to decide with whom to live is being negated, the Prime Minister emphasized. In the constitutional sense, he added, Europeans today “have no right to their own homeland, their own language, their own culture, to their families and to their God.”

The ruling of the Hungarian Constitutional Court has stemmed the tide, for now, and restored the system of human rights to what it should be, Mr. Orbán said, displaying the perspective from which this decision of Hungary’s highest court should be evaluated.

“There is homeland only where there is law. The Constitutional Court has stated that Hungarians have the right to their own homeland,” Prime Minister Orbán concluded.