The leader of Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ) has welcomed Hungary’s initiative to ship migrants by bus to Brussels as a form of protest against the EU’s policy of strong-arming Hungary into accepting them.
FPÖ leader and candidate for chancellor, Herbert Kickl, was quite pleased with Viktor Orbán’s initiative.
“This is a good initiative from Orbán. Others should follow his example. If the bureaucrats in Brussels want migrants, they should take them in themselves,” Kickl wrote in a social media post.
National elections take place in Austria on Sept. 29, with Kickl set to come in first place.
As Remix News wrote recently, Hungary has upped the ante in the migration debate with Brussels by presenting the buses it can use to send migrants to the EU capital, with a Hungarian politician repeating the threat on Monday after Belgium said it would reject the buses.
If Brussels “wants us to let them in, we will let them in — put them on the bus, and drop them off in front of [European Commission President] Ursula von der Leyen’s office,” said Tamás Menczer, the spokesman for the Hungarian ruling party Fidesz in a video posted on his Facebook account on Monday, Sept. 9.
The original threat that made international headlines was made by Hungary’s interior minister, Bence Rétvari, during a press conference in front of a fleet of buses last week.
“If the European Union, Brussels, wants to force Hungary to let in the illegal migrants, those we have stopped so far a million times at Hungary’s southern border, then Hungary, after the implementation of the European procedure, will offer these illegal migrants a voluntary, free of charge, one-way ticket to Brussels. If Brussels wants illegal migrants, Brussels can get them,” he said.
Hadja Lahbib, Belgium’s foreign affairs minister, said the announcement “is a provocation that contradicts European obligations,” adding that “migration policy is a common challenge that must be tackled in an orderly fashion and with solidarity by all member states.”
The Hungarian move, however, might be complicated by the fact that Germany, which lies on the most direct route between the two countries, will re-introduce border controls from Sept. 16.
