(DS/CR/AFP/JB) Luxembourg's Prime Minister has spoken against the outspoken comments of his Foreign Affairs Minister who called for Hungary to be suspended from the EU.

Jean Asselborn said on Tuesday that Hungary had violated the democratic core values of the EU by treating refugees like “animals”.

When contacted by the Luxemburger Wort, Prime Minister Xavier Bettel did not criticise his minister but at the same time, he did not agree with his stance.

“I think we should view ourselves as like a family in which all members share the same value together and speak to one another when a family member does not accept these common values,” he said, adding: “We should not exclude a family member.”

Asselborn was quoted in an interview published in Tuesday's edition of German newspaper “Die Welt” as calling for Hungary's exclusion from the EU over its treatment of migrants.

"Those who, like Hungary, erect fences against war refugees, violate the freedom of the press and the independence of the judiciary should be excluded temporarily, or if necessary forever, from the EU," he said.

Asselborn's Hungarian counterpart, Peter Szijjarto, responded to his comments by dubbing the Luxembourger a “frustrated and arrogant man” who lives a few kilometres from Brussels but is “excluded from the serious political circle”.

“Hungarians have the right to express their opinion and to decide with who they wish to live and not live. Neither Brussels bureaucrats nor Luxembourgish Foreign Affairs Ministers can deny us this right,” he said via a press statement.

German Foreign Affairs Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also distanced himself from his Luxembourg counterpart's view saying that it did not reflect the agreed upon view of the European Union member states.