“Expressing condolences is no longer sufficient. Europe has changed once and for all. Brussels should give up its position focusing on removing barriers to immigrants,” he said, adding that all terrorist attacks in Europe had some links to immigrants and “radical Islam”.

The attempted coup d’état in Turkey on Friday night, he said, suggests that “the European Union should not assign the task of protecting its borders to others.”

Kósa stressed the need for “viable solutions” in handling migration, for which he called Hungary the best example. Hungary, he said, is protecting the Schengen border in line with the EU laws.

Hungarian police do exemplary work which they can document as well, Kósa said in response to critical remarks by international organisations over the past few days, which he branded as “lies”. Human Rights Watch on Wednesday accused Hungary’s authorities of “summarily forcing” migrants back to Serbia, “in some cases with cruel and violent treatment”, without considering their claims for protection.

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