Hungary PM: EU should not spend single cent on refugees

By Mehmet Yilmaz

BUDAPEST (AA) - Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban on Friday said the European Union should not allocate “a single cent” for refugees in its upcoming budget.

In a statement on the Prime Ministry’s website, Orban said he will “not support an EU budget in which funds are taken away from farmers, research and development and regional developments, and are given instead to countries which have let in migrants”.

His comments came during an interview on state radio Kossuth’s “180 Minutes” program on the EU budget for 2021 and 2027.

Orban, who is known for his anti-refugee stance and won the April elections with his anti-migrant campaign, said “migrants should not be given ‘a single cent’ and every country should take care of themselves from its own budget”.

Facing the biggest refugee crisis since World War II, southern European countries support the EU commission in its spending on the bloc’s budget to deal with the crisis, while eastern European countries, particularly Hungary oppose such measures.

The commission’s 2021-2027 budget needs to be approved by all EU members to take effect.