He added that Hungary observes international and European laws by protecting the Schengen borders, and called criticism of that approach “absurd”. Concerning Islam, Orbán said that “Hungary has a healthy approach to Muslims”.

Islam calls for respect for “civilising a very difficult part of the world”, he said, but added that Christian civilisation and Islam civilisation “won’t go hand in hand”. The difference between them will lead to “parallel worlds”, Orbán said.

He argued that “Muslims will have more children than we, Europeans” and argued that an influx of Muslim immigrants would change the target country in a matter of 20 years.

“Some European countries have decided” to become such target countries and “will not see but the positive, socioromantic side” of immigration, Orbán said. “Germany seems to be one such country and it will artificially change the composition of its population”.

Hungary, on the other hand “will not be a nation of immigrants” and “nobody can force us to become an immigrant country”, Orbán told the paper.

Concerning European funds and solidarity, Orbán said if a member country decided to allow migrants in, “the consequences cannot be distributed among other members”, and insisted that “Berlin cannot pass the consequences of its decision on to others, through Brussels”. Blaming Hungary for “only drawing EU funds” is “offensive” because “that is just one side of the coin”, because the community’s old members “make a huge amount of money on Hungary”, Orbán said.

He argued that cohesion funds would “only partly compensate Hungary for being trampled on by the enormous economic power of other EU countries”.

On another subject, Orbán said that Hungary’s EU membership is “unshakable”. Hungary is a “westerntype Christian country” and has a “natural” part in Europe, he said, but added that Europe should not be “isolated” but have dynamic ties with both west and east. Concerning Russia, Orbán urged “clever and well-considered” cooperation between Europe and Russia.

“In Hungary we do not feel that Russia should jeopardise our security”, he added. Referring to the German chancellor, Orbán said that Europe “could not have given appropriate answers” to challenges of the past decade without Angela Merkel, and wished her success in the 2017 elections.

He suggested, however, that his Fidesz party, earlier referred to as “Hungary’s CDU” was now closer to Germany’s CSU party.

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