Hungaryʼs Prime Minister Viktor Orbán delivers his speech yesterday. (Photo: MTI/Szilárd Koszticsák)

Orbán said the EU leadership is dealing with the migrant issue poorly because it is thinking in terms of “global citizens” rather than the nation states. He said the fight in the EU was one between “unionists and sovereignists”, and claimed that Hungary belonged in the latter group. He said migrants did not cause the current problem; they only made it visible. Instead, Orbán said, the migrants were victims of human smugglers and bad government and international decisions themselves, according to index.hu’s report.  

Orbán called “Wilkommenskultur”, or the culture of welcoming immigrants in Europe, “suicide”. He stressed that he was pro-Europe, which he said includes the Balkans, too. He said that Europe can defend itself as “altogether, there are more Europeans than Russians and Americans together”.  

On domestic issues, the prime minister said that banks have been contributing to growth. Regarding protesting teachers’ demands, Orbán only said that he agreed that KLIK, the centralized school administration that his government created, had to be reformed.  

While Orbán gave his speech, some 2,000 anti-government protestors chanted outside, in a demonstration organized by the opposition Együtt party with the motto “My rights have been stolen!” and “Return the referendum to the people!”, a reference to the opposition’s inability to have its referendum proposals approved, index.hu reported.