As for the fence Hungary has built on its southern border to prevent migrants from entering the country, “it is getting higher, longer and more risky”, said Asselborn.
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NEWS BRIEF The foreign minister of Luxembourg has said in an interview that Hungary’s treatment of refugees, and the state of its judiciary and media were violations of the European Union’s fundamental values, and suggested the country should be “excluded” temporarily or forever to protect the bloc’s values.
“We can not accept that the basic values of the European Union are being so seriously breached”, he said.
‘The fence that Hungary is building to keep out refugees is getting longer, higher and more risky.
He added that leaders like Orban were damaging the EU’s reputation by giving the impression that the bloc could no longer live by the values it propagates on the global stage.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier however later dismissed the comments, saying: “This was not a position that was agreed upon by European states”.
Asselborn was quoted Tuesday as saying: “Anyone who, like Hungary, builds fences against refugees from war or who violates press freedom and judicial independence should be excluded temporarily, or if necessary for ever, from the European Union”.
“We can not accept that the basic values of the European Union are being massively violated”, Asselborn said in the article.
“The fence that Hungary is building to keep out refugees is getting longer, higher and more risky”, Asselborn told Die Welt.
He is urging the nation to vote in a referendum next month against future European Union quotas stipulating how many refugees each country should take. Szijjarto said Hungarians have the right to decide whom to live with.
“We understand what it means, though: Hungary has to pay the piper after other people make mistakes”, he said.
Asselborn had already sharply criticised Orban. “Europe must cooperate and stay coherent”.
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In less than three weeks, the country will hold a referendum that will ask citizens: “Do you want the European Union to be able to mandate the obligatory resettlement of non-Hungarian citizens into Hungary even without the approval of the National Assembly?” “This rhetoric is not helpful”, added Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics.
