Budapest, October 4 (MTI) – Pro-immigration European liberals want to initiate a suspension of Hungary’s voting rights in the coming week and ultimately aim to shut the country out of the European Union, the cabinet office chief said on public radio on Sunday.

“Pro-immigration liberals are opposed to Hungary’s decision to defend its own borders and those of Europe,” Rogan said on Kossuth Radio.

He added that steps would be taken to counter the liberal group’s initiative to invoke Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union which allows for the suspension of voting rights in case of a serious and persistent breach of EU values by a member state.

Rogan, who has been the parliamentary group leader of governing Fidesz till now, said that unlike a significant part of Europe’s political and intellectual elite, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban listens to the voice of the people of Europe and understands their opinions on immigration. Most Europeans understand the danger of immigration, they see the difficulties of living side by side with these people, he added.

The EU does not know where to start with immigrants: “the pro-immigration European immigration policy is a failed one”, Rogan said.

The opinion of the prime minister that Europe’s borders must be defended, allowing Europe to take control of the situation and decide who to and who not to let in is a composed and unruffled one, Rogan said, contrasting it with a climate of debate in Europe that “often seems like chaos”.

Rogan pointed out the precedent of the fence along the border between the United States and Mexico to keep out a wave of immigrants.

“While Europe struggles with a mass migration of hundreds of thousands, even millions, the United States’ annual immigration quota is 80,000-100,000,” he said. The US government strictly and resolutely defends the interests of the American people, something European governments should do in Europe, too, he added.

Rogan complained of the double standard applied to Hungary in Europe’s liberal press which give readers the impression that a military dictatorship has been introduced in Hungary, while putting firm measures by the police against immigrants who cross the borders of other European countries illegally among “normal procedures”.

In a statement issued in response, the Hungarian Liberal Party said the European liberals’ group had not initiated Hungary’s exclusion from the EU and had no wish to do so. The initiative by the liberals in the European Parliament aims to force the Orban government to respect basic human rights and treat refugees fairly, it added.

The liberals believe the tightening asylum laws and changes to the defence law violate EU norms, the party said.

Party head Gabor Fodor wrote in a letter to Guy Verhofstadt, who leads the EP’s liberal alliance ALDE, that he rejects the Hungarian government’s refugee policy but does not support the suspension of the country’s voting rights, it added.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters