The terrorist attack on a church in Rouen in France and the surge in the harassment of women indicate that “Europe’s Christian civilisation is under attack,” he said. “We’re in the eleventh hour,” the minister insisted, underlining the need for a cohesive European security policy.

He said setting up a joint European army was an important element of such a policy. Protecting the continent’s borders is also important, but in order to do so it is vital that European institutions ditch their “hypocritical policies” that inspire hundreds of thousands of people to set off for Europe, Szijjártó said.

Instead of “inspiring migrants” to come to Europe, EU institutions should concentrate on trying to ease the migration pressure on the continent, as Hungary has been doing for the past year and a half, the minister said, adding that it was also imperative to defeat the Islamic State terrorist group and for Europe to contribute to resolving the various conflicts in its south-eastern neighbouring region.

But Europe on its own cannot accomplish all this, and it needs to work with Russia and the US in a partnership, Szijjártó insisted.

Asked to comment on the German government’s changes to its migration policy, he said there were still likely to be differences of opinion between Hungary and Germany. Over the past year and a half, only Hungary and the Visegrad Group it forms with Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic have been consistent in their views on the migrant crisis, he said.

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

MTI photo: Bruzák Noémi