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Luxembourg Minister Says Hungary Should Be Suspended From EU

The unusually strong attack on Viktor Orban’s government, which prompted a vigorous riposte from Budapest, came three days before a crucial summit meant to project the bloc’s unity after Britain’s shock decision to leave.

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“The fence that Hungary is building along to keep out refugees is getting longer, higher and becoming more risky”, said Jean Asselborn.

Luxembourg’s FM Jean Asselborn wants Hungary “suspended or even expelled” from the European Union because of violation of EU’s values, the BBC is reporting.

Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn give a news conference after an emergency meeting on the migrant crisis in Brussels, Belgium, November 9, 2015.

“We can not accept that the EU’s fundamental values are being massively violated”, Asselborn told German newspaper Die Welt.

Hungarian government’s treatment of refugees, “independence of the judiciary and freedom of the press” are the examples of these violations, he said.

On October 2 Hungarian citizens entitled to vote are called to the referendum that should say whether or not they agree for their country to receive refugees, the mandatory quotas set by the European Commission.

Asselborn said that the EU can not tolerate “such misconduct” on the part of Hungary and the exclusion would be “the only way of preserving the cohesion and values of the European Union”. Asselborn said that changing the rules to this effect would be “helpful”.

Hungary was caught up in an enormous influx of migrants and refugees a year ago as more than a million people headed through central Europe from the shores of Greece towards Germany and other Western European countries. It was “the only possibility to protect the cohesion and values of the European Union”, he said.

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Asselborn said refugees are being treated “nearly as bad as animals” and that anyone hoping to breach Hungary’s “ever longer, ever taller” fence may face the worst. “Further raising of the barriers and calls for exclusion of member states are, in my opinion, nonsense”.

Jean Asselborn