The Hungarian border fence built two years ago to block refugees caused outrage, but Justice Minister László Trócsányi tells Kurt Sansone it was vital for keeping free movement in the EU.

If the EU’s external borders are not strengthened, the influx of migrants could lead to walls going up between Member States, the Hungarian Justice Minister warns.

László Trócsányi defended his country’s decision to put up a fence along Hungary’s southern border in 2015 as Europe was swamped by an influx of migrants streaming in from Turkey.

Talking to The Sunday Times of Malta, Dr Trócsányi also said Europe had to do more to defend its Christian roots and called for an open debate on integration of Muslim migrants.

“In 2015, Europe may have been naive, but now it faces reality… We believe in the borderless Schengen area, but for that to function well, the EU’s external borders have to be strengthened,” he said.

In Malta for the informal council of the EU’s justice and home affairs ministers, Dr Trócsányi insisted the fence was not only protecting Hungary but the rest of Europe.

“Protecting the external borders is our duty… if security is not well-maintained, we will see border walls going up between EU Member States,” he warned.

Hungary attracted severe criticism for erecting a fence that blocked off refugees, but Dr Trócsányi pointed out that Spain has long had a walled-off border in its North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.

“The fence may be shocking to some, but people in France and Belgium – impacted by terrorist attacks – will most probably say the Schengen area is not functioning well if the external borders are not secured,” Dr Trócsányi said.

Hungary’s decision to close its border has a hint of historic irony. The country was the first in Eastern Europe to start dismantling the Iron Curtain along its border with Austria at the end of the Cold War in 1989. The decision ignited a chain reaction that eventually led to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Almost three decades later, Hungary was the first to close its border with a fence and stop refugees entering the country.

Unfazed by the argument, Dr Trócsányi said Hungarians valued the freedom obtained after rejecting a Communist regime.

“The free movement of people across the EU as enshrined by the Schengen Treaty is very important to us. It is one of the added values of EU membership. But Schengen also presumes we have controls on Europe’s external borders.”

Hungary remains opposed to the European Council’s decision in September 2015 to impose a mandatory migrant relocation system to ease the burden of the influx on the border States, Italy and Greece.

We believe Europe’s Christian roots have to be safeguarded

Along with Slovakia, Hungary has objected to the arrangement by filing a case before the European Court of Justice.

Dr Trócsányi said the council decision was taken by a qualified majority which Hungary believes was mistaken, since the mechanism effectively altered the rules of the Dublin Convention. “We argue that to do so, the decision should have been taken by unanimity.”

Hungary respects the council decision, but Dr Trócsányi’s assessment of the mandatory system is a bleak one indeed. The decision was not set to resolve the migration crisis, he said, describing it as an exercise in social engineering that failed.

“There are migrants who do not want to live in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary or Poland. They want to go in other countries within the EU, and this creates conflict,” he said, adding there was a case of 21 refugees relocated to Lithuania under the mechanism who “very quickly” ended up in Germany.

The Visegrad countries have come up with the term ‘flexible solidarity’ as an alternative to the mandatory system. This means that countries unable or unwilling to take in migrants from other Member States will be able to contribute through other means.

The cost to build the border fence could be one such contribution, Dr Trócsányi said. Offering university scholarships to students from countries where migrants originate is another. “We have also offered Germany and Austria help to process migrants in their countries,” he said.

Hungary agrees with a Maltese presidency proposal to have holding centres where migrants can apply for asylum in countries like Egypt, Algeria and Libya.

Dr Trócsányi acknowledged the problem of where to relocate refugees from these centres, however, insisting this should not be an imposition on Member States.

But he believes Europe’s principle priority now is to secure its external borders while respecting international law and the humanitarian dimension of the migration phenomenon.

Asked whether Hungary was preoccupied because the migrants were predominantly Muslim, Dr Trócsányi said Eastern European countries did not have a history of colonisation.

“We do not have the experience like others in the EU of integration of nationals coming from other countries. We believe Europe’s Christian roots have to be safeguarded, but this does not mean that refugees who deserve protection do not get it.”

He said European multiculturalism was not successful, quoting German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He said migrants who arrived in Europe in the 1960s and 70s integrated well but he feared today’s wave was more interested in preserving values and norms that could contrast with Europe’s.

“When this happens, it creates small, closed communities such as the banlieues, or suburbs of Paris, and the Molenbeek district in Brussels, which can lead to friction,” he said.

Dr Trócsányi insisted the political mainstream could not sweep the problems of integration under the carpet.

“If politicians in the mainstream don’t want to talk about this, one will be allowing the extreme right to fill the gap,” he said.