By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News reporting from Budapest, Hungary
BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Hungary’s fiercely anti-migration prime minister has condemned “the antisemitic rioting in Amsterdam” that left numerous Jews injured and raised questions about the community’s future in the country.
Viktor Orbán, whose country has the rotating European Union presidency, spoke at the end of a summit in Budapest, where more than 40 heads of state and government discussed the prospects of peace in Ukraine while making the nearby EU more competitive.
However, last week’s violence in Amsterdam that saw Israeli soccer fans and other Jews being threatened and hunted by what survivors called “Arab Muslims” overshadowed the talks.
“We Hungarians also find this [antisemitism] unacceptable,” added Orbán, who has often “warned” of an unlimited influx of mainly Muslim migrants that he claims fuel antisemitic and anti-Christian sentiments.
He has erected a massive fence next to the Serbian border that would make U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump jealous.
Yet Orbán has been criticized for his perceived crackdown on genuine refugees fleeing war, persecution, and poverty who have few options to appeal when asylum applications are rejected.
In June, the European Court of Justice (ECH) fined Hungary 200 million euros ($213 million) for breaking the EU’s asylum laws and ignoring an earlier judgment.
DETAINING ASYLUM SEEKERS
The Luxembourg-based court first ruled in December 2020 that Hungary had failed to comply with the bloc’s rules on the treatment of migrants by “unlawfully detaining” asylum seekers and deporting them before they could appeal, ordering Budapest to make changes to its policies.
Hungary ignored the judgment, which
“constitutes an unprecedented and exceptionally serious breach of EU law,” the court said.
In addition to the 200 million euro fine, Hungary must pay an additional 1 million euro (nearly $1.1 million) per day if it fails to comply with the court’s judgment.
Hungary’s declared anti-migration policy also impacted non-Muslims, including a Christian Iranian father and his young son, who were detained on the Hungarian-Serbian border for 527 days.
They were eventually moved to a home in northwest Hungary following international pressure and questions asked by a Worthy News reporter at a global news conference.
A Baptist church helped Abouzar Soltani, a convert from Islam to Christianity, and his 12-year-old-son Armin to find an apartment in the Hungarian city of Győr, Worthy News
However, Orbán maintains that, in general, his policy seems to work and prevents the riots seen in cities like Amsterdam. “You are now in a city – and I say this to foreigners – where perhaps the largest synagogue in Europe and the city’s largest Catholic cathedral are practically a stone’s throw apart,” he said in a statement sent to the Worthy News Europe Bureau in Budapest. “And this proximity is also symbolic of our city. It is a meeting place, a meeting place of different cultures: East, West, North and South. And this is what makes it so uniquely tolerant. This is why here in Budapest, we live together in peace and security – and I wish the same for the people of Amsterdam.”
In addition to the issue of antisemitism, the Budapest summit focused on making Europe more competitive.
BUDAPEST DECLARATION DEAL
During Friday’s informal European Council meeting in Budapest, part of the summit, leaders adopted “the Budapest Declaration on the New European Competitiveness Deal”, said Orbán.
The pact is focused on reducing Brussels’ impressive bureaucracy, tackling skyrocketing energy prices, and addressing people’s reluctance to invest.
Some leaders expressed reluctance to arrive in Budapest at a time when billions of EU aid to Hungary have been withheld amid concerns over the rule of law issues and Orbán’s perceived authoritarian style.
Despite disagreements, “We decided to launch a rationalization revolution, reducing administrative burdens. As a first step, by the end of the first half of 2025, we will drastically reduce the number of reporting obligations that are greatly burdening European companies,” Orbán recalled.
Additionally, “We have resolved to adopt urgent measures to reduce high energy prices. European Union companies are paying three times more for electricity and four times more for natural gas. Therefore, the Budapest Declaration’s assertion that immediate action is needed is no exaggeration.”
Orbán added, “We have also resolved to formulate a genuine industrial policy in the coming period. We have all agreed – and we have pledged, we have confirmed – that by 2030, we will devote 3 percent of Europe’s GDP to research and development.”
However, in a move that worries those fearing government control, he complained that the European people’s savings “are higher than the American people’s savings. But Europeans keep their money in banks, and banks are not genetically suited to financing various high-tech, risky investments.”
FINANCIAL FUNDS QUESTIONS
Therefore, Orbán said, “We need to move bank deposits into financial funds, and we need to persuade our citizens to do so in order to make those funds more easily available for innovative economic solutions.”
He noted, “Over the past two decades, growth in the European Union has been consistently slower than that of China or the United States. Here in Europe productivity is growing slower than that of our competitors. The European Union’s share of world trade is falling.”
Inspired by Trump, a close friend and political ally, Orbán said leaders basically agreed to “Make Europe Great Again.”
For that to happen, all 27 members of the EU will have to agree on implementing policies, including Spain, which is recovering from massive flooding that killed at least 219 people and left scores missing.
“We express our deepest condolences and stand in solidarity with the people of Spain, in particular with the families and friends of the victims,” the EU leaders said in a final declaration.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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