A pro-government commentator accuses Angela Merkel of complacency towards illegal migration. A liberal MEP lambasts the Polish authorities for not admitting migrants, while, at the same time, calling on the EU to help Poland defend its borders. A moderate columnist is concerned about the humanitarian crisis but has no idea how to resolve it.
Hungarian press roundup by budapost.eu
Magyar Nemzet’s László Szőcs finds it alarming that the EU cannot resolve the Poland-Belarus crisis on its own, while outgoing German Chancellor Merkel felt compelled to ask Russian President Putin to use his leverage in Minsk and tell Belarus to stop instrumentalizing migrants. Szőcs writes that Angela Merkel, who is now apparently so deeply concerned over ‘a couple of migrants’ on the Polish-Belarus border, actively supported migration in the 2015 crisis – and criticized Hungary for stopping undocumented migrants. Szőcs thinks that it would be time for the EU to acknowledge that migration is not a good thing at all, and also to reach into its pockets and give financial help to countries that erect fences to stop it.
In Magyar Narancs, French MEP Bernard Guetta (Renew Europe) calls on Europe to resolve the humanitarian crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border. The liberal politician acknowledges that Poland cannot admit all the migrants transported to its border by Lukashenka, the cynical Belarus President, as such a move would attract even more migrants from the Middle East. He nonetheless lambasts Poland for proposing to keep out migrants. He suspects that such efforts are motivated by anti-Muslim sentiments. Europe’s inability to act reminds Guetta of the way the world turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the misdeeds of Hitler and Stalin. He concludes by calling on the EU to resolve the crisis and help the migrants who are stuck along the borders. By helping to defend the border and offering financial help to Poland, the EU could show unity against the cynical and dictatorial Belarusian government, Guetta suggests.
In Magyar Hang, Kornélia R. Kiss also blames the migrant crisis primarily on President Lukashenka. But the centrist commentator also thinks that Europe has a humanitarian duty to help migrants who cannot either cross the Polish border or turn back. She is not very optimistic, however, about help from Europe, and sees no one actually taking responsibility for the migrants stuck in the border zone – not even for helping them to stay alive.
Featured photo illustration by MTI/AP/BelTA/Oksana Manchuk