He said it was also not true that Brussels was planning to implement an automatic mechanism for redistributing migrants without an upper limit, as Orbán had said. The EU never made any decisions about automatic migrant quotas, Tóth said, arguing that although the European Commission had put forward proposals on the concept, it was rejected by several national parliaments, including the Hungarian one.

He noted that the initiative was rejected with 95% of the Hungarian parliament—including the Socialist group—voting against it. Tóth said it was “astonishing” that while Orbán is battling Brussels, more than 3,500 “economic migrants” and their families have settled in Hungary through the residency bonds scheme.

But instead of the profits from residency bonds flowing into state coffers, they will land in Fidesz-affiliated offshore companies, Tóth insisted. That is why, he said, the Socialist Party has submitted to parliament a bill aimed at scrapping the residency bonds scheme and mandating that companies involved with the scheme transfer 75% of their profits from trading residency bonds to the central budget.

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

MTI photo: Illyés Tibor