László Toroczkai: We can save Europe from migrants – Ásotthalom is a good example

The story of the mayor of one Hungarian town that proved that Europe can be protected from migrants.

For many parts of, Europe the immigrant situation is acquiring the character of catastrophe. People from uncontrolled inflows from the Middle East, South Asia and African countries are literally replacing the local population, introducing their own rules, and sometimes (thanks to these inflows) terrorists come to Europe. The examples of Sweden or Germany are enough to see how a beautiful country can change for the worse in just a few years.

But it`s not over just yet - at least in Eastern Europe. The example of Hungary, which defied the migration attack, is really fascinating. In January 2018, I was fortunate to visit Budapest. The first question that I had appeared even at the airport: how can this be? This is Europe, and almost without any migrants? During the whole trip I barely saw any Arab or African migrants. Of course, there are some migrants, but it is a very small number in comparison with Paris or London.

In Hungary there are really heroic places. László Toroczkai is the mayor of Ásotthalom, located on the Serbian-Hungarian border. With the beginning of the "open door" policy of 2015, a small town was a place of unthinkable number of illegal migrants that crossed the Hungarian territory just like they were walking near the windows of the shopping center. Toroskai (for the first time alone, then with the support of the population) challenged this chaos, and he managed to save the city from a catastrophe: there`s no migrants, and the local human smugglers that illegally transported the migrants, relocated to neighboring countries.

-Please, tell us about the situation in Asotthalom – what are the problems right now with migrants? In your opinion, is the influx of migrants dangerous?

-Ásotthalom is a small town with 4 000 habitants at the Hungarian-Serbian border, which is also the border of the EU, the Schengen border. It was a very interesting situation because we had never seen migrants at this border before 2012. The migrants, especially from Africa, from the Middle East, and Southern Asia started appearing that year because the EU, and especially the Brussels bureaucrats, forced the Hungarian government to change immigration laws, and the human traffickers (the international mafia which organizes this mass immigration) immediately discovered this Balkans route, which went straight across my town. And in 2015 my town, of which I`m the mayor, became the main target of this mass immigration. Most illegal migrants came that year.

We had a few hundred thousand illegal migrants in 2015, and I had to do something because the first time I was totally alone with this problem, nobody wanted to help me.

Of course, I sent a lot of messages and letters to the Hungarian government, but I received only some letters in return. They said they cannot do anything with this problem because Brussels doesn`t want to support the protection of the border and this border was totally open. It is not a natural border, there is no river, there are no mountains, nothing, just fields. So anybody, absolutely anybody could walk across this border without facing any restrictions.

I said at the time, that many terrorists and criminals could come to EU, and, unfortunately, I was right. For example, there was my field police (which was founded by me), and we were financed from the budget of our town, because the Hungarian government (only initially) and the European Union didn`t want to help us. I had only five local field policemen, because my town is poor, so we did not have money to donate the local police.

I was alone with this problem. Once we could catch one terrorist from ISIS, but we had to let him continue his journey to western Europe! Just because of the totally stupid, idiot, crazy laws of the EU. We were forced by the EU to believe their lies. For example, this man, this terrorist lied to the Hungarian authorities that he was a seventeen years old teenager, a refugee from Afghanistan. Hungarian authorities let him go to Hungary, he could continue his journey, and one year later he committed a terrorist attack in Germany, close to Wurzburg, on a train. He attacked tourists, and he was in my town! And this the crazy European idea to open every border, without any control.

This is why I started to create my system of border protection. I founded this local police branch in my town against mass immigration, but there were only five local policemen, me, and eighteen volunteers against five hundred thousand illegal migrants that year. We struggled mightily that year.

Fortunately, however, my plan was successful because I started to form public opinion. I invited local journalists from all over the world, because at that time the Hungarian media wasn`t interested in this problem. But the international media started to come to my town, and international public opinion forced the Hungarian government to do something – they realized that the majority of the Hungarian people supported my idea of erecting a border fence. The Hungarian government has started to support my fight against this problem; maybe because the Fidesz party needed the votes, but it`s not important to me, because my first aim was to protect my town; the second: to protect my country, and the third one: to protect Europe and European nations. The interests of my party are only fourth in the order of my attention.

This is why I`m happy – the Hungarian government built this border fence only from the Hungarian budget, with only Hungarian people money. The E.U. never supported or donated to us. For example, I managed to buy a new jeep for our local police from private donations. Those people who followed me on my Facebook page sent more than five million forints. We got 4 million from the Hungarian people and 1 million forints from the French foundation NCI La France Rebelle. The leader of this foundation, Philippe Gibelin, became an Honorary Citizen of my town. This is why the French flag is on the jeep of that our border guards use.

I sent a letter to the Hungarian government for a new jeep, because we had only one Russian Lada Niva. We protected the border with this Russian car, but it was not enough, unfortunately. This is the best car in forests and on rough terrain, but we couldn`t catсh the criminals, the human traffickers, because they used the best and most expensive jeeps to transport migrants. On the highway our Lada Niva couldn`t catch them, we were not fast enough.

Earlier, too, I had sent a letter to the Hungarian government, and I received the answer that they could not give us a new one. This is why I wrote about this on my Facebook page. People from France and Hungary donated, they sent us some money, and we could buy a new Toyota jeep against these traffickers.

It was an international business. I always say that people who support this illegal mass immigration support crime. Because it is an international mafia. For example, we arrested criminals in my town from Sicily, from Italy, from the Middle East, from Pakistan, from Chechnya. So it was a totally international business, it’s even better than drugs or prostitution when you look at the income side of things.

Illegal immigration is a booming business for the mafia and those politicians who support this mass immigration. In my opinion, they support the mafia and international organized crime.

-So, can I ask you for details? For example, how many migrants tried to cross the border illegally (from 2015 till today), how many human smugglers do you have now?

-As I said, about 5 hundred thousand illegal migrants arrived in 2015. The next year, when the Hungarian government accepted my idea to erect this border fence, there were less migrants – just a few ten thousand. And now the current situation is much better – calm has returned to my town. Now we catch just a few immigrants every month. Therefore, the protection system, this idea is working, because now the human traffickers have left my town and they don`t want come across the Serbian-Hungarian border. This is very dangerous for them, because they have not got too much of a chance to go across this border.

But illegal immigration didn`t stop. The mafia just tried to find other ways to go to the EU. For example, they are now coming across Romania and Croatia and of course Italy and Spain.

But my town is the worst place for them.

-I heard many opinions about some plan to fill Europe with migrants. One view purports to replace local people by migrants, the other one to resolve several demographic problems... There are many theories. What do you think, is this influx of the migrants organized by someone? If it is organized, do you have any idea who is interested in this and why?

-I think this immigration is a difficult question. Of course, there are worse demographical effects, and unfortunately white people (not only the people in EU, but also in Russia or North America) are having less children, so the number of babies is less than in Africa or South Asia. If we give up our territories, our motherlands, other people will arrive to occupy those territories: this is the way it’s always been throughout history.

Of course, we have to defend our motherlands. There is an islamisation of Europe, but I think that it`s not the important driving force behind this immigration. I`m not against the Islam or other traditional religions, but Islam has no place in Europe – that`s my opinion. The place of Islam is the Middle East or South Africa. And Europe has a Christian foundation.

First of all, this mass immigration is a political question. You can see how we could stop this immigration in my town. This problem disturbed calm and order in my town. And now my town is one of the safest and a very calm town without these problems. You cannot see any migrants in my town.

Therefore, we can stop this immigration if we want. The problem is that the politicians, most of the European politicians, especially the leaders of the EU, don`t want to stop this immigration. They are interested in this immigration, they want to support this immigration. And there are some people behind these politicians. Look at these politicians - Jean-Claude Juncker, or Martin Schulz – they are very weak people. I don`t see that they do serious decisions. I think they just do what those businessmen and financial people want, those who stay behind these politicians. So, I think that this is an economical and financial question, no any other reason.

In the beginning of the XX century there was an idea, a plan (not a new ideology for a few politicians). They think that creating a United States of Europe is a good idea - without nations, without borders. They are talking about peace – but you can see how mass immigration has changed Europe.

Europe was a safe place, now Europe is full of terrorism, full of dangers, full of bloody conflicts. It`s not true, this immigration will not bring peace. This immigration will support a few very rich businessmen’s interests to rule over European society.

For example, if some workers want to fight for their interests (against salary laws etc), the people can fight for good causes via their nations. If the leaders of EU destroy the nations of Europe, they will not have any opportunities to fight for their peoples’ interests.

I believe in nations. I want an alliance between the European nations, but I cannot support the EU in its current form, because it is an economic, financial conglomerate, not an alliance of the people. That is the problem.

-There is a difference between illegal migrants and refugees. As Mr. Orban said in interview, legal refugees “knock on the door” and ask the permission to stay temporarily, not forever. What do you think about this distinction?

-In this question my opinion is very clear. The migrants are not refugees, and they came across the transit zones. The Hungarian government created transit zones which are like gates, like the entrance on the border fence for the migrants. And we know perfectly well that most of the migrants lie about their identity.

For example, an Arabic-Hungarian translator of Hungarian police said to me three years ago that a lot of Arabic people who say that they are refugees from Syria were speaking in other Arabic dialects (from Morocco, from Algeria, from North Africa). So, they were not Arabic people from Syria. Or this terrorist from ISIS who was in my town and we could catch him - he lied about his identity, he said he`s a teenager-refugee from Afghanistan, and after terrorist attack German police could recognize he came from Pakistan. Of course he was not refugee, and he was nineteen years old – he was an adult, not teenager.

And these migrants who came across this transit zone can lie anything about their identity.

And my opinion is very clear. I would accept refugees – real refugees – only from neighbouring countries around Hungary. But these migrants arrive from South Asia, from Africa, so they passed across many safe countries before they arrived at the Hungarian border - Greece, Bulgaria and other members of the EU.

I don`t understand why people from Afghanistan, India or the Middle East cannot get refugee status in rich Arabic countries. Hungary is not so rich a country if we compare it with Saudi Arabia, Qatar or other rich Arabic countries, or Israel. Hungary is not a neighbor country to the Middle East or South Asia, or Africa. We could accept refugees from neighbor counties where is a war - like we accepted many refugees from Yugoslavia during the Yugoslavian war in the 1990-s. If those refugees are serious and they came from Ukraine, from Subcarpathia, and they are Hungarians, and they don`t want to go to fight in the war because the Ukrainian government forces them to go to fight in Donetsk – my opinion is that the Hungarian government must help these ethnic Hungarian people from Ukraine. But if civilians arrive from Ukraine (even ethnic Ukrainians or ethnic Russian people) – Hungary must support them.

But these migrants came not from Ukraine, they came from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Africa. My opinion is very clear: they should go back to their countries if there is no war. Or if there is war, they should go back to the first safe country, not Hungary.