Group leader Lajos Kósa said EU leaders, including EC President Jean-Claude Juncker, are in part responsible for the attacks. He said Juncker is incapable of enforcing the bloc’s laws. “If the EU’s leaders are incapable of observing the law or even instructing member states to observe them, then they should resign,” Kósa said.

The co-ruling Christian Democrats called on the prime minister to “keep doing what he is doing and protect Hungary”. Lawmaker Imre Vejkey said that apart from genuine refugees, economic migrants, criminals, soldiers and terrorists are also entering the European Union as part of the migration wave.

Gábor Vona, head of the radical nationalist Jobbik party, said that both the migrant quota system and the relocation scheme need to be stopped if Hungary is to protect itself from terrorism. Signature drives like the ones ruling Fidesz is pursuing “are a thing of the past”, Vona said.

Only a binding referendum will get Hungary’s message across to Brussels, he added. The party and group leader proposed a debate on migration and terrorism, to which he said the starting statements could be “Migrants are not terrorists” and “Terrorists, however, are migrants”.

The opposition Socialists said Hungary must give a “strong, proportionate and effective” response to the Paris attacks. Group leader József Tóbiás said that the “sensible majority” in Europe knows that terrorists like the ones who carried out Friday’s attacks “cannot be stopped with any kind of fence”. He said that anyone looking to make political gains out of the attacks “serve the interests of the terrorists”.

Tóbiás said he was “shocked” by the prime minister’s remarks with which he said Orbán aimed to create tension. Green opposition LMP said European Union and Europe as a whole needs to be protected through joint efforts. Group leader András Schiffer said Europe has failed to protect itself.

“If Europe fails to cooperate in countering terrorism, if European intelligence services fail to share information among themselves, then Hungary, too, will be left defenceless.” Schiffer said his party sympathises with France, adding, however, that the terrorist attacks were part of a global crisis, whose victims are not just EU member states, but also the migrants’ countries of origin.

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MTI photo: Kovács Attila