BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungary’s prime minister says Western countries in the European Union are suffering from “enlargement fatigue” and using newer members as a scapegoat for their problems.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban also said Friday on state radio that if countries like Serbia had been part of the EU already during the 2015 migration crisis, “illegal migrants wouldn’t have reached Germany.”

Orban said he expects former Hungarian Justice Minister Laszlo Trocsanyi, nominated as EU commissioner for neighbourhood and enlargement issues, to encounter “heated moments” during upcoming hearings before the EU parliament’s vote on the new EU Commission.

Hungary is facing EU action regarding the rule of law and democratic procedures, including over laws enacted during Trocsanyi’s ministerial tenure, but Orban said there could be no professional objections to Trocsanyi, only “that he is Hungarian.”

The Associated Press