Ohrid, 27 September 2024 (MIA) – We need to establish strategic cooperation in the fight against illegal migration, from Greece through North Macedonia to Hungary, stated Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at Friday's press conference in Ohrid with his Macedonian counterpart, Hristijan Mickoski.

When asked about deepening cooperation with Macedonia on this issue, Orbán believes that migration will be a long-term challenge and that Western European countries are not prepared to defend their own borders.

“I am glad that here, in the Western Balkans, there are peoples who have learned the same lesson as we did in their history - that what we are seeing now is nothing new. We know how migration functioned in the past and what it brought us. It would be good to include Western European countries in this cooperation, but they are not prepared to defend their own borders. That is why we faced a historical challenge - while we are fighting against the migrant wave in our region, in a few years we can expect a migrant wave behind our backs. That is why we need to know that we have established cooperation on specific issues here, and if we want to preserve our cultural identity, national determination, and Christianity, then we must defend ourselves,” Orbán said.

He assessed that a deep demographic reshuffling is happening worldwide due to migration.

“You should know that there are significant difference in demographic processes in the northern parts of Africa, especially in the Mediterranean. If we consider the demographic explosion in African countries and if we do not prevent it, we can expect that millions of people could come to Europe across the Mediterranean. From this, we can conclude that the migration problem does not concern the next 30-40 years but the next 70-80 years,” Orbán noted.
Therefore, he emphasized that they are looking for partner countries that will be willing to cooperate on this matter.

“Hungary sees that Macedonia is historically oriented towards this in a historical context. The same goes for Serbia, and we want to establish cooperation with them that will enable us to preserve our historical and cultural traditions over the next 30-40 years. That is why we must establish cooperation at the government level, both on the issue of migration and on all other matters,” Orbán added.

When asked about some EU member states beginning to reassess their stance on migration, he concluded that their politicians have determined that European nations benefit from migration.

“From the very beginning, we were against that. We believed that it could not bring any good, while other larger EU countries had different perspectives. Their thinking is maturing a bit, and they should change their view on this issue, but it’s not happening easily. They need to find a way to explain this to their citizens. We have never had disagreements about what is needed and what is important to us,” Orbán noted.

Photo: MIA