Hungary rejects EU migration pact, vows not to accept any relocations

Hungary will not implement the European Union's new migration pact and will refuse to accept any migrants under the scheme, senior government officials said on Wednesday, reported Xinhua.

Gergely Gulyas, head of the Prime Minister's Office, told reporters that EU interior and justice ministers had adopted an implementing decision defining the number of asylum seekers and reception capacity allocated to Hungary.

On Monday, the European Council reached a political agreement on the 2026 migration "Solidarity Pool," which provides for the relocation of 21,000 asylum seekers across member states and includes 420 million euros in financial contributions.

Gulyas said the mechanism could "in a crisis situation allow the unlimited redistribution of migrants," a prospect the Hungarian government considers unacceptable.

"Hungary will not implement the migration pact, and will not accept a single migrant," he said.

He added that the government had followed "the most democratic procedure" by holding a referendum in which, according to him, an "overwhelming majority" rejected mandatory migrant resettlement. For this reason, he argued, the EU cannot decide "with whom Hungarians should live together."

Prime Minister Viktor Orban also criticized the decision, calling it "a new, absurd, and unjust attack against Hungary" in comments posted on social media.

He said the pact would oblige Hungary to either take in migrants from other EU countries or pay a financial contribution starting next July.

"I want to make it absolutely clear once and for all that as long as Hungary has a national government, we will not implement this outrageous decision," Orban said.

He added that next April's elections would determine whether Hungarians want "a government that will strike a deal with Brussels and accept the migration pact, or ... a migrant-free Hungary."