Never before have people been goaded to change their viewpoint on such an important issue. For this reason, European leaders must completely review their policies, Orbán said.

The PM confirmed that the government intends to close the Bicske reception centre and a relevant plan of action is being implemented. “But this won’t happen for one day to the next,” he added. Soros, who considers himself an opposition leader against the Hungarian government, opposes the cabinet on the issue of migration and supports organisations that want to force the government to back off in this area, Orbán said.

“This is an increasingly sharp conflict between the self-proclaimed Hungarian opposition leader George Soros and the Hungarian government,” he added. Commenting on scholarships that Soros finances, he said “buying someone” with expectations in mind is a “strongly Communist way of thinking”. In connection with his recent official visit to Egypt, Orbán said, “We can live peacefully in proximity to the Muslim world but not mixed with it.” A person who belongs to Christian civilisation must not be anti-Muslim, he said.

“We don’t want to take over Muslim rules and accommodate them in our lives … we have our own principles for living; we respect theirs and expect them to also respect ours”, Orbán said. A refined Muslim culture stands above terror threats and violence. The Muslim world is not equal to the wave of migrants, the people who tipped the fence over at Röszke and “the terrible person in Bicske” who told a Hungarian woman to be happy because he had not raped her, Orbán added.

Commenting on his recent meeting in Cairo with Ahmed el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of al-Azhar, he said they shared the view that it will be best for Europe if it makes every effort to support the stability of Egypt. “We could hardly tolerate in Europe” the consequences of the collapse of Syria which had a population of less than 30 million, Orban said.

Compared to that, Egypt is a country of 90 million, and if it destabilises and “once the people set off from there, we will not be able to cope”, he added. He said the Imam was right in that the EU should cast aside its “usual European prejudices” and focus on fully supporting the current Egyptian leadership.

If there is no successful Egyptian leadership and strong and united army, Europe will have to face another wave of migrants which will be three times as large, he added. Orbán urged Europe to rethink its foreign policy, noting that interventions had been made in three countries — Iraq, Syria and Libya — in the recent period, and all three had fallen to pieces, chaos had emerged and migrants in their millions had embarked from these places.

“This madness is done in the name of exporting democracy . so that with the notions of European culture and methods proven over here we are trying, unsolicited, to make another civilization, another culture with people who think differently, happy. This has failed,” Orbán said.

“The chaos in the Middle East and the painful consequences for Europe are proof for me that it is not possible to export democracy either using weapons or peaceful methods.” On the subject of Libya, he said that one possibility was for Europe to eagerly take the side of the Libyan government and recognise the Libyan army and accept arming them.

The other possibility, he said, was for European soldiers, under international authority, to land in Libya where a massive refugee camp must be established and receive people trying to get to Europe.

“Indeed, those who have arrived in Europe illegally must be sent there,” he said. On the topic of Brexit, he said, “We are glad to be in an alliance with the British . but we cannot allow ourselves the right to tell the British what to do.”

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.