He insisted that under a scheme devised by US financier George Soros the European Union must accommodate one million immigrants a year. He added that Hungary was against any such plan because it would compromise Europe’s security and national interests.

The Socialist Party said Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had lost the migrant quota case against the EU and would also lose next year’s general election because his “politics are built on lies which the people have had enough of”. In a statement, the party said Hungary’s position in the EU would “continue to weaken”, the costs of which would have to be borne by Hungarian families.

Radical nationalist Jobbik rejected the ECJ’s decision, calling it “outrageous”. No court or EU member state can force another nation to “alter its ethnic makeup” against its will, Jobbik spokesman Ádám Mirkóczki told a press conference. He said his party would re-submit to parliament a bill that would prohibit the settlement of all migrants in Hungary, regardless of whether they are rich or poor.

A lawmaker of green opposition LMP said the constitution compels the Hungarian government to comply with the ECJ’s decision on the migrant resettlement scheme. Speaking at a press conference on a different subject, Márta Demeter called the government’s actions “hysterical”. Noting the government’s residency bonds scheme to settle people in Hungary which “allowed 20,000 people into the country and into the EU with virtually no vetting”, she said the government had no moral basis on which to criticise the court’s decision.

The Democratic Coalition accused the government of deliberately going into the lawsuit knowing it would lose. The ruling would then give Prime Minister Viktor Orbán a pretext on which to announce Hungary’s withdrawal from the EU, the party’s spokesman, Zsolt Gréczy, insisted. He added that the government had mounted an anti-Brussels billboard campaign. He also insisted that Orbán would mount a new campaign claiming that the “whole of the EU is only a Soros organisation”.

The Liberals told a press conference that the ruling was a “thrashing” for the Hungarian government. The party’s foreign policy spokesman István Szent-Iványi said the government’s migration policy was wrong and had led to “senseless campaigns and a senseless referendum”.

Meanwhile, Manfred Weber, group leader of the European People’s Party, of which Hungary’s ruling Fidesz is a member, said in a statement that all EU members must observe and implement the European Court’s quota ruling. He suggested that the ruling may open up opportunities for engineering a common European migration policy that would “heal wounds” within the community. He said that all parties should be ready to make compromises, adding that “solidarity is not a one-way street”.

Gianni Pittella, group leader of the European Socialists and Democrats, said Hungary and Slovakia should meet their obligations and start receiving the “couple hundred” asylum seekers they have been assigned, otherwise they would be fined. “Solidarity works in both directions,” he said, adding it was “shameful” that Orbán had demanded further funds from the EU “to erect a pointless fence” while failing to meet obligations arising from Hungary’s EU membership.

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

MTI photo: Balogh Zoltán