Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has hit out at the European Commission, pledging to take it to court over its mandatory migrant quotas.

His government filed a lawsuit in the European Court of Justice over the Commission’s plans to distribute 120,000 migrants across the continent. Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic also strongly oppose the plan.

Mr Orban said the quotas were “illegal, unreasonable and unfair” and claimed Brussels had no authority to impose the scheme.

Speaking in an interview with public radio on Friday, Mr Orban said that the European Union (EU) “cannot tell us whom to live with” and said that politicians throughout the world must make sure that whoever leaves their homelands must eventually be returned to where they belong.

For this reason, he said, Western leaders have to bring stability to Syria so the migrants from there can be returned.

Hungary Today reports that he also criticised the EU’s deal with Turkey this week in which Turkey pledged to stem the flow of migrants in return for cash, visas and renewed talks on joining the EU. Mr Orban said the agreement was “logically flawed” and amounted to Europe “begging for security” rather than doing more to protect its own borders.

This week, the European Commission also registered a petition for sanctions against Hungary due to “serious and persistent breach of EU values”.

The so-called “Citizens Initiative” states: “Since it came to power in 2010, Viktor Orban’s government has multiplied measures that are antidemocratic, xenophobic and contrary to founding principles of the rule of law.

“Furthermore, the unacceptable treatment of migrants by Hungarian authorities leads one to fear that such action spreads to other member states where democratic culture is recent and fragile.”

Mr Orban branded the initiative “revenge” by the multiple groups who support mass immigration.

“There are leaders, business circles, human rights activists, who are angry with the Hungarians for confronting their ideologies and proving that it really is possible to protect this continent in a democratic way and taking into account the will of European people,” he said.

He said that these people, many of whom are supported by billionaire George Soros, think “nations are bad”. Hungary’s view, on the other hand, is rather different: “Without nations there is no Europe.”