Manfred Weber Calls for Border Protection, Yet Unable to Create Consensus

Walls should be built as a last resort, but if there is no other way to stop illegal immigration, we must be ready to build fences, said Manfred Weber, President of the European People’s Party (EPP), praising the policies of the center-right Italian government in an interview published in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Monday. Contrary to some commentators’ recollections, in this point, there has never been a dispute between Weber and the Hungarian Prime Minister.

Manfred Weber said the European Union is facing another major migration crisis. He said that the EPP fully supports Rome in its efforts to ensure that no Member State is left alone in the face of the pressure of illegal migration and that the issue is at the forefront of European politics.

A common EU action plan was needed, but the European Commission or individual Member States “are not taking a conscious attitude, are not listening, are not acting, despite the seriousness of the problem”,

Weber added.

The EPP President stressed that Europe is facing another migration crisis, in which we must be ready to build walls and fences to protect Europe’s borders. He said that, at the initiative of the EPP, an extraordinary debate would be held in the European Parliament in the coming days on the launch of solidarity measures for Italy, the country most affected by migration, and on the EU funding for the construction of fences to protect not only national borders but also common European borders.

Manfred Weber called the European Commission’s package of migration measures presented in February “premature,” stressing that instead of promises repeated for years, the return of illegal immigrants to their countries of origin should be sped up because “if an immigrant has no right to protection, he must return to his country of origin.”
Weber’s words come as the migratory pressure in Italy is reaching crisis levels. Since the beginning of the year, more than 33,000 people have arrived in the country, compared to less than 9,000 in the same period last year. There are currently more than 117,000 in camps in Italy.

Despite articles in the conservative press speaking about Manfred Weber’s u-turn regarding border fences against illegal mass migration, the EPP president has never been among the most vocal opponents of such measures. As far back as in 2015, he has defended the Hungarian government’s decision to build a border fence against illegal migrants and people smugglers. More recently, Weber has called some European leaders “naive” for not understanding the need for a security fence on the EU’s borders with Belarus.

Instead, the dispute between the EPP leader and Viktor Orbán stems from Weber’s allegations of populism, nationalism, euroscepticism, the case of George Soros’ Central European University, and his “the EU is always” right attitude. From the Hungarian government party, Fidesz’s point of view, the general complaint against Weber was that he had allowed the EPP to shift strongly to the left, abandoning its Christian conservative outlook and respect for the voice of member states.

The latter complaint seems to have come to haunt Weber when he complains about European Commission or individual Member States not taking a conscious attitude, not listening, are not acting, despite the seriousness of the problem. As Viktor Orbán pointed out in his recent criticism, the EPP has become just another left-wing political grouping in the European structures. Although it is the largest such coalition in the European Parliament, it is now unable and unwilling to present a viable platform for the reform of the EU’s broken immigration system. Seven years after the peak of the migrant crisis in 2015, there is not even a hint of a consensus on the effective protection of Europe’s outer borders, let alone a solution.

As to Weber’s calls for solidarity with member states and not letting countries such as Italy battle alone with the consequences of the actions of people smugglers, countries such as Bulgaria, Hungary or Greece have seen little or no financial aid from Brussels in the construction of border fences, the building and maintenance of which costs billions of euros. Solidarity with member-states affected by illegal mass migration have so far been exhausted by either proposals for a migrant distribution mechanism or financing the social care and rescue of those finding their way to Europe through smuggling networks. Both measures have so far incentivized migration rather than being able to stop it, just like the millions donated to groups ferrying migrants from Africa to Europe under the guise of “sea rescue.”

Despite his declarations, Manfred Weber has missed his one and only chance to forge a consensus within the EPP when he allowed his personal dispute with Viktor Orbán to spiral out of control. Although a politician who clearly understands the dangers of the newly escalating migrant crisis, his words no longer carry enough clout to result in tangible change. Furthermore, allowing the left fringe of the European People’s Party to own the debate on migration and national sovereignty, he now presides to a political grouping that is in the views of many, part of the problem, rather than the instrument of a solution, as far as the hundreds of thousands of economic migrants landing on Europe’s shore are concerned.

Via MTI, Hungary Today. Featured Photo: MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Szecsődi Balázs