Brussels wants to implement an automatic mechanism for distributing migrants without any upper limit and facilitate family reunifications, he said, adding: “They’re preparing a ruse: if they can’t get along with nation states then they will get along with left-wing cities ... Now it will become apparent where the migrant settlements will be.”

Orbán insisted that the EU should be strengthened at the level of member states that serve as a basis for the community, rather than “Brussels institutions”. Warning that the EU’s competitiveness had dropped “tremendously” in the past decade, he added that the community’s economy needed to be bolstered.

“We do not want to leave the EU but improve it,” he said. On another subject, Orbán said that the United Kingdom should be no cause for concern after Brexit. Britain, with the sixth largest economy in the world, “stands on its own two feet and knows where it is going”.

“What we are worried about is Brussels, not London”, Orbán said, adding that Brexit reflected a “failure of European policies”.

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

MTI photo: Illyés Tibor