Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has made a direct link between immigration and the attack on a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, where a man drove a car into a market killing at least five people and injuring more than 200 others, the Associated Press reported, quoted by BTA.
During a rare appearance before independent media in Budapest, Orban expressed his sympathy for the families of the victims of last night's attack, which he described as a "terrorist act". He also suggested that EU migration policy was to blame.
German authorities are investigating the motives of the suspect, a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who is opposed to Islam. He has lived in Germany since 2006 and practices medicine. A self-described former Muslim, the suspect shared dozens of tweets and retweets daily, focusing on anti-Islamic themes, criticizing religion and congratulating Muslims who have renounced their faith.
Orbán claims that such attacks only began to occur in Europe after 2015, when hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees entered the EU, largely fleeing war and violence in the Middle East and Africa. In fact, Europe has witnessed numerous attacks for decades, including the 2004 train bombings in Madrid. and attacks in central London in 2005, the AP recalls.
However, the nationalist Hungarian leader said that "there is no doubt that there is a connection" between migration and terrorism and added that the EU leadership "wants Magdeburg to happen in Hungary".
In addition, Orban said today that granting asylum to a former Polish leader accused of corruption, which Warsaw describes as a "hostile act", "will not be the last", notes Agence France-Presse.
Poland summoned the Hungarian ambassador and recalled its ambassador to Budapest after Hungarian authorities announced that they had granted refugee status to former Polish deputy minister Marcin Romanowski.
"I will not reveal any big secret to you by telling you that I do not think this time will be the last", Orban said during his traditional end-of-year press conference. He stressed that he wanted to keep "conflicts with Poland at a manageable level" and therefore will not comment on the state of the rule of law in that country.
Romanowski is a member of the right-wing Polish party "Law and Justice" (PiS) and a former deputy minister of justice. The Polish authorities accuse him of 11 crimes.
Orban is a close ally of PiS, which was ousted from power by the pro-European coalition led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk after last year's elections, AFP recalls.
The charges against Romanowski include participation in an organized crime group and an attempt to embezzle nearly 40 million euros from a fund for victims of crime that he controlled. He was arrested in Poland, but Polish courts later ruled that his detention was unlawful because he enjoys parliamentary immunity as a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
The defendant disappeared in early December after PACE lifted his immunity and a court ordered his arrest.
Hungary believes that "it is not guaranteed that his legal case will be heard impartially and without political influence in his country of origin," AFP notes.