Ruling Fidesz MEP Balázs Hidvéghi on Wednesday addressed a European Parliamentary debate on an EU report on legal labour migration, criticising the document for its “flawed basic premise and assumptions”.
“We must dispel the myth that mass migration is the answer to demographic challenges and labour market problems,” Hidvéghi said in the debate on the Report on New Avenues for Legal Labour Migration. Hidvéghi accused the left-wing and liberal EP groups of “forcing multiculturalism onto Europe”.
The MEP said mass migration led to fundamental changes in the makeup and cultural paradigm of a society. Hidvéghi said the problems mass immigration had led to in western Europe were clear. He said that not even the more powerful and prosperous member states had managed to properly address the social, cultural and public safety challenges posed by migration.
Hidvéghi said the idea that multiculturalism was preferable to a homogeneous European society was “misguided”. The EU has no need for labour migration rules, he said, adding that drafting such regulations should remain a national competence.
Countries facing demographic or labour challenges have a number of ways to address them, the MEP said, noting Hungary’s successful family and tax policies. He said it was “unacceptable” for the left to want to import migrants into Europe instead of creating jobs for those who have been put out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking to Hungarian reporters after the debate, Hidvéghi said a new approach was needed to resolve the issue of migration. “It’s unacceptable that migrants should be shipped to Europe with the boats of people smugglers and civil groups,” he said.
“We mustn’t transfer the power to make decisions on this issue to any Brussels-based body,” he said. “We stand firm on this.”
Hidvéghi said the “Brussels elite and pro-migration MEPs” were still applying the “same flawed approach” to the issue they had been applying “since the beginning”
“The Brussels elite has learned nothing from the developments of the past years,” he said. “They’re still forcing migration onto us and choosing the same bad solutions.”
Hidvéghi said most MEPs who had addressed Wednesday’s debate had approached migration strictly as a humanitarian issue.
Featured photo by Szilárd Koszticsák/MTI
