At a joint press conference following a meeting with his Czech counterpart, Andrej Babiš, Orbán said the document set down principles that would not reduce illegal migration but stimulate it.

Every substantive legal case in the future will make use of the document as a point of reference, he warned. He said mass migration was a serious issue and decision-makers should not ignore the opinion of the people.

Yet in Europe today, he added, people are not allowed to express their opinions, or leaders fail to take them into account.

“We in central Europe, however, want to remain democrats,” he said. “Migration is testing the democratic nature of political systems,” the prime minister added.

Concerning the European Parliament’s decision to hold another vote on “migrant visas”, Orbán said that “it seems that we will have to keep on voting until we arrive at what they consider the right outcome”.

He added that “this institution calling itself a guardian of the rule of law will easily transgress the norms of that rule of law”.

MTI Photo: Szecsődi Balázs