Orbán said the Visegrad Group of countries was completely unified on the issue of jobs: it is not through immigration that workplaces should be filled but through family-friendly policies and a work-based society.

The prime minister said there were passages in the declaration that deviated from this line, but in terms of the rules governing an alliance of 27 countries, this state of affairs was valid in such a document.

The Socialist Party said the majority of Hungarians favoured the EU. Socialist MEP István Ujhelyi said in a statement that anyone who works to weaken the bloc works against the will and interests of the Hungarian people.

The Democratic Coalition said in a statement that it backed the idea of a united states of Europe. Ferenc Gyurcsány, the party’s leader, said Orbán today had “squirmed in the presence of European leaders like a Judas” because instead of democracy he had advocated illiberalism, and instead of a free press he supported party propaganda.

Instead of diversity he wanted ethnic homogeneity, and in place of clean competition, he chose his “corrupt and untalented mates”, he added.

LMP leader Bernadett Szél said in a statement that LMP believed it was important that the government should clarify its relations with the EU and that parliament should put faith in a better, more effective, more just and more united EU.

The Együtt party said in a statement that Orbán represented a hypocritical type of politics in relation to the EU while the Liberals expressed concern about the future of the bloc.

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

MTI photo: PM's press office / Szecsődi Balázs