The European Union should establish a new frontier on the northern border of Greece, because an agreement with Turkey will not be enough to stop hundreds of thousands of migrants from coming to Europe, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday.
Orban said Germany, which welcomed a million migrants last year, has recently shifted towards “common sense” to slow arrivals. But Orban said nothing short of stopping more people entering would resolve the issue.
“I think the next line of defense that we need to build up lies on the northern border of Greece,” Orban told public radio in an interview.
He said Bulgaria, one of Greece’s northern neighbors, should be adopted into the EU’s border-free Schengen zone, while Macedonia should be given financial support and other assistance so it could beef up its defenses.
“I do not think that the deal with Turkey will be sufficient in itself,” Orban said. Hungary erected fences on its southern borders to halt the flow of migrants.
In October, the EU offered Turkey a possible 3 billion euros ($3.26 billion) in aid, the prospect of easier travel visas and renewed talks on Turkey’s joining the bloc, in return for its help stemming the flow of migrants to Europe.
“It is nice that (Turkey) has promised that there would be a line of defense there, but we need to build one of our own from our own resources on the northern border of Greece and stop, not slow down, but stop migration,” Orban said.
Orban inspecting the Orban Line
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What is interesting is that in the WWIII between EU and the Refugees, the Orban Line does not even need to set up new fortifications on the Greek-Bulgarian border. Many of the 21 fortifications constructed along the Metaxas Line have survived up to this day, with the tunnels,, emplacements and machine-gun nests still intact even though empty of weapons.
Tsipraki, please evict the Hungarian embassy
I do not understand something: Orban advocates introducing a “new frontier on the northern border of Greece” and at the same time letting “Bulgaria, one of Greece’s northern neighbors… into EU’s border-free Schengen” agreement. The latter would remove some border checks on Greece’s northern border, which are already in place… That is, unless he also implies Greece should be kicked out of the Schengen agreement.
Understanding Orban is akin to comprehending the mind of dear Adolf. Yes, of course he is implying that Greece should be kicked out of Schengen; he probably wants Greece kicked out of the EU.
My personal view, as a non-Greek, is that the EU would be better off without certain fascist-minded countries of the former communist bloc. If it was a mistake to allow Greece to join in 1981, it was a catastrophic error to bring in the loonies from eastern Europe. It was done for cheap labour, of course.
Please don’t forget that Greece (Spain and Portugal also) became members because they freed themselves from dictatorships, military coups like happened in Spain and Italy in the 80ies were never a danger for the “communist” states. For the rest your are right but it also makes now sense for Greece to threaten the EU with leaving as the EU is planning to concentrate millions of refugees in Greece.
Youre a hypocrite gigi.
From what I can tell your plan is to give yourself and your countrymen a pat on the back for saving drowning people, a very honorable and necessary humanitarian effort, while ignoring the problems the countries face that have to actually take those people in for good. Greece carries an enormus burden in this crisis, but in the end its just a transit country. What is the average time a refugee spends in greece?
What is your solution when countries like swe and ger come to a point where people cant even be given proper housing while its freezing outside( we are very near that point)? If those countries reinstate border controls you will decry them for bein soulless nazis, if someone brings up the idea of stationing EU border guards in greece you cry about violation of sovereignity(while in the next sentence complaining that noone will help with the problem).
” EU is planning to concentrate millions of refugees in Greece.”
EU isnt planning anything and thats the problem, its all just happening without any plan or structure.
Wanting to help everyone and being able to are two different things.
Feeling good about helping someone while actually making things worse is naive at best, malicious at worst.
I do not think the intention of the EU is to lumber Greece with millions of refugees, but they certainly intend to inflict some. Maybe 100,000 or so. The game plan is to try to leave currently 2 million, but potentially 3-4 million, in Turkey and prevent them from accessing EU territory and claiming asylum. This was what Berlusconi arranged with Libya, and it all fell apart when Gadaffi was removed from power.
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Also, I don’t see that it would benefit Greece to leave the EU over the refugee problem. There is still no way of stopping them from arriving, when they come by sea. It seems clear to me that Greece’s best hope of managing the refugee crisis is through the EU — even though the track record of Europe (on the eurozone and also on migration) is very very poor. It’s the same problem with everything: Greece is in a weak position. The only time it had any leverage was then the German and French banks were ready to collapse — so malakas Papandreou did nothing to assert the Greek people’s rights, and lost the chance of the decade for powerful negotiation.