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Hungary, Orban's anti-immigrant battle continues

Billboard war between Budapest and the UN, 'barrier' with Serbia

15 June, 17:14

By Stefano Giantin

 

(ANSA) - TRIESTE - ''Immigration is dangerous'' and we must now consider ''all options'', including the construction of a 'barrier' on the permeable southern border with Serbia, through which this year thousands of migrants and refugees entered the country, attempting to get to the EU. This is what the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban announced last week during a conversation on the popular public radio Kossuth.

''If you come to Hungary, you do not take jobs away from the Hungarians'', ''if you come to Hungary, you have to comply with its laws'': these words are written on large posters issued by the government and affixed in cities and towns as part of a national consultation on immigration, designed to take the pulse of the electorate. These posters, anyway, were often victims of acts of vandalism carried out by the activists of a small opposition party.

That is Hungary, a country that along with Italy and Greece continues to be at the forefront of what has been defined 'refugees emergency'. And 'emergency' seems to be an apt term in Hungary, at least according to the government. The country has received more than 50,000 requests for asylum in 2015, 43,000 in 2014, with the highest rate per capita of asylum seekers in the EU and with a boom in recent years: the refugees recorded in 2012 were only 2,157. About 70% of the refugees are from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.

Hungary, led by conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban - often quarrelling with Brussels and the internal opposition because of his controversial policies -, is a country which is not going to have a too-passive attitude in dealing with this emergency; it will try, instead, to find solutions to the problem. Even drastic ones. ''We think it is wrong to send the refugees by us, they should be stopped in Serbia'', Orban specified on the radio, adding that the EU should fund reception centres outside the Union in order to allow a careful 'screening' of migrants.

Orban is now back on the issue by means of large and aggressive billboards. The campaign is designed primarily for traffickers in human beings - but also for 'economic' migrants, those who are fleeing war and persecution - who must be aware of the fact that ''Hungary is a country that must be escaped''. Budapest cannot employ any immigrant, the leader of Fidesz said on the radio, as the government's website Magyar reported, and billboards convey the message that ''there is no chance of staying here''.

The exhibition of Orban's 'Weltanschauung' does not end here.

The Hungarian prime minister has pointed out that the majority of Hugary's population - an EU member since 2004 - agrees that immigration is dangerous and that the proposals of the ''liberal intelligentsia'' to adjust flows are fanciful and unrealistic.

Finally, there is new refusal to take into account the idea of quotas, wanted by Brussels and rejected by various European capitals, Budapest ahead.

This vision is not likely to have been appreciated, for example, by the Hungarian section of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), that responded with a campaign that includes the launch on 16 June of billboards in favour of integration, depicting refugees now integrated in Hungary: Sophie, from Togo, who works in a kindergarten and ensures that children are sorrounded by confidence and not prejudice, Dariush, from Afghanistan, who now says he loves his new country and Begum Ali, 41 yo, from Bangladesh, who says ''I want to stay here, since I opened my restaurant''. This campaign, UNHCR admitted, was conceived as ''an interesting dialogue with the anti-immigration attitude of the Hungarian government.'' But is the immigration issue in the country consistent with Orban's mottos and government campaigns? The problem of immigrants and refugees exists, but "very few want to stay in Hungary, the most of them want to travel to Germany, Sweden, Great Britain. And phase of people coming from Kosovo is actually over", says Istvan Hegedus, chairman of the Hungarian Europe Society, describing a 'transit' country, where migrants do not want to live. "But actually it's not about the influx of immigrants, just a bad excuse from Orban", he adds.

"Just on the day of the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris he already said that Europe is full, that the boat is full, even if the terrorists were not immigrants but French citizens. It's the same trick, once again. Although we don't have so many immigrants, Orban plays with the fears of the people".

"Although there is a strong xenofobia in the society - Hegedus stresses - this campaign seems to be quite counterproductive at least on the political party. There is a small satirical political party, the Hungarian Two-tailed Dog Party, a satirical party that started to collect money from the citizens for a countercampaign to show solidarity to migrants and critize Orban. And they gatered something like 100,000 euros in a couple of days".

''The main objective of the Prime Minister is to find a new theme for his political agenda'', presenting himself as ''the defender of the Hungarians. Old polls have shown that when he presented himself as a bulwark against external threats, EU included, he has grown more and more powerful and popular'', whereas during the past year ''since he did not find a suitable theme, he had been forced to take a defensive position''. This situation became even more difficult due to unpopular government measures such as ''the web tax'', and corruption scandals, the maanager of Orban's political thinktank 'Policy Solutions' Tamas Boros said in an interview with ANSA New Europe. And the immigration issue could be successful, even in Hungary. ''It will dominate the agenda for some months - Boros adds - but it is not a major issue for the Hungarians''. Some months ago, a survey found that a majority of Hugary's population sees immigration as the most serious problem in the country'', he explains, whereas emigration was seen as the most worrisome issue by 57% of respondents. (ANSA).

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