He said that the government was using “double speak” when it firmly rejects quotas at home being takes a more permissive attitude on the issue in the EU. Z Karpat said the Hungarian government supported the formal Conclusions adopted at the summit which called for sharing out migrants to countries with EU borders and the setup of new reception centres for migrants.

DK said in a statement that Orbán had become “pro-quotas” and he should apologise to Hungarians and pay back the costs of his antiquota campaign. Együtt also called for repayment of some 400 million forints (EUR 1.29m) in campaign costs as well as 1 billion forints spent on the “national consultation” drives.

Opposition parties also said Viktor Orbán had suffered “a defeat” at the EU summit because Hungarians working abroad would be worse off as a result. Deputy leader of the Socialist opposition István Újhelyi said the United Kingdom could restrict allowances for workers from EU member states for not four, but possibly seven years and other EU members could also limit certain welfare benefits for workers from EU countries.

The green opposition party LMP said the prime minister has let Hungarians living abroad down and proved unfit to represent and protect their interests. LMP believes that wages in Hungary should be raised so that Hungarians working abroad would be able to return home, a spokesman said.

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