EU’s Jean-Claude Juncker slams Viktor Orban over Soros migrant poster

February 19, 2019

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s political party no longer belongs in the center-right EPP grouping in the European Parliament, European Commission (EC) President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Tuesday.

Juncker was responding to a political poster by Orban’s Fidesz party that accuses the EC chief of working with the billionaire philanthropist George Soros to allow more migrants into Hungary.

“Against lies there’s not much you can do,” Juncker said. He added that the head of the European People’s Party (EPP) in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber, should consider “if I need this voice” in the grouping.

Read more: Is Viktor Orban the EU’s hard-line hero or villain?

‘Ludicrous conspiracy theory’

The poster shows Juncker and Soros’ faces and tells the reader that EU leaders are following Soros’ orders to “launch experimental immigration projects with African countries; … introduce mandatory settlement quotas; … reduce financial assistance for countries opposed to migration.”

The EU responded with altered versions of the campaign posters, instead showing Orban and Juncker together.

Another poster on the Hungarian government’s Facebook page tells readers: “They want to introduce mandatory settlement quotas; they want to weaken the border protection rights of the member states; they would facilitate immigration with migrant visas.”

Read more: EU Parliament votes to trigger Article 7 sanctions procedure against Hungary

Earlier, the European Commission denounced the posters as a “ludicrous conspiracy theory.”

“The Hungarian government campaign beggars belief,” it said, adding: “The EU supports not undermines national border protection.”

Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said the posters were a type of spin “in a completely different universe.”

‘Everyone has a right to know’

Hungary has defended the campaign as a way of telling citizens about “Brussels’ plans to encourage immigration” ahead of the European elections in May.

“Everyone has the right to know which are the current proposals fundamentally threatening Hungary’s safety,” the government said.

Read more: EU conservatives warn Hungary’s Viktor Orban over illiberal trajectory

Orban is one of Europe’s most vocal anti-immigrant leaders and has regularly accused the Hungarian-born Soros of conspiring to undermine Hungary’s borders. Critics have accused him of using anti-Semitic tropes in many of his comments.

At the height of the 2015 migration crisis, he introduced a razor-wire fence along Hungary’s southern border and denounced German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to allow hundreds of thousands of refugees into Germany.

Since then, he has restricted the ability for refugees to apply for asylum in Hungary and vehemently opposed efforts to reallocate refugees throughout the European Union.

Viktor Orban’s most controversial migration comments

‘Muslim invaders’

“We don’t see these people as Muslim refugees. We see them as Muslim invaders,” Orban said in a recent interview with German daily Bild newspaper. The 54-year-old prime minister of Hungary added: “We believe that a large number of Muslims inevitably leads to parallel societies, because Christian and Muslim society will never unite.” Multiculturalism, he said, “is only an illusion.”

Viktor Orban’s most controversial migration comments

‘You wanted the migrants, we didn’t’

When asked by Bild whether it was fair for Germany to accept hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants while Hungary accepted none, Orban responded: “The difference is, you wanted the migrants, and we didn’t.” Migration, he said, threatens the “sovereignty and cultural identity” of Hungary.

Viktor Orban’s most controversial migration comments

‘Migration is poison’

It was not the first time the Hungarian leader has framed migration as a problem for his country. In 2016, he said that Hungary “does not need a single migrant for the economy to work, or the population to sustain itself, or for the country to have a future.” He added: “for us migration is not a solution but a problem … not medicine but a poison, we don’t need it and won’t swallow it.”

Viktor Orban’s most controversial migration comments

‘Importing homophobia’

Orban has repeatedly criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her decision to allow over a million migrants into Germany in the summer of 2015. Orban told Bild in early 2016: “If you take masses of non-registered immigrants from the Middle East into your country, you are importing terrorism, crime, antisemitism, and homophobia.”

Viktor Orban’s most controversial migration comments

‘All terrorists are basically migrants’

Orban has also repeatedly criticized the EU for trying to get member states to share refugees based on national quotas. In a 2015 interview with POLITICO, he suggested the bloc’s leaders instead focus more on strengthening the EU’s external border. In the same interview, he said: “Of course it’s not accepted, but the factual point is that all the terrorists are basically migrants.”

Viktor Orban’s most controversial migration comments

‘Parallel societies’

Orban has found allies in other right-wing governments in eastern Europe such as Poland that also oppose the EU’s refugee policies. In an interview with Spanish TV channel Intereconomia in 2015, Orban raised fears about integrating Muslim migrants in the EU when he said: “What sort of Europe do we want to have? Parallel societies? Muslim communities living together with the Christian community?”

Author: Alexander Pearson