“Navracsics should know better than anyone that his colleagues and their circle, people and organisations are not only in the hands of [US financier] George Soros, but also in his pocket,” Zsolt Semjén told Kossuth Radio, referring to the EU commissioner for education, culture, youth and sport.

Navracsics in Budapest on Friday said the European Commission was working out a migration policy along its own lines rather than those of Soros. Speaking at a forum at the EC Representation in Hungary, Navracsics said that the commission kept its distance from domestic politics and would not comment on the Hungarian election campaign.

Navracsics also declined to comment on Hungarian domestic affairs. The EC, he said, had got accustomed to being exploited in domestic politics, with political rivals often blaming the commission for policies such as its much- criticised migration policy.

Semjén, who is also the leader of the Christian Democrats, said Navracsics should weigh up his loyalty to his homeland as against his loyalty “to an international organisation”. He added that he hoped Navracsics’s statement could be attributed to “a journalist’s misrepresentation” of what he said.

He said the German leadership had been anti-democratic for failing to consult its citizens about whether or not they wanted to live side by side with masses of Muslims. Referring to the upcoming “national consultation” on the so-called Soros plan, he added that Hungary was doing the right thing by consulting its citizens over the issue of migration.

On another subject, Navracsics said that the commission would submit a plan next September to make some areas of decision-making – such as the EU’s common foreign policy, welfare policy and taxation where these impinge on the internal market – pass by a two-thirds majority rather than by unanimity.

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