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Eireann Van Natta
(Daily Caller) Right-wing governments in Europe are pushing back against the European Union’s (EU) asylum rules and some are being punished for it.
The Netherlands Migration Minister Marjolein Faber of the Freedom Party (PVV) announced Wednesday that she wrote to the EU to officially ask for a “migration opt-out.”
The Dutch coalition government is spearheaded by Geert Wilders’ PVV and it declared in May that it would crack down on mass immigration and institute strict border controls, Reuters reported.
The Netherlands is not the only country pushing back against the EU’s immigration policy’s.
In June, the EU fined Hungary 200 million euros for violating asylum laws, the AP reported. On Wednesday, the European Commission began taking money from “common funds” intended for Budapest since Hungary failed to pay the fine.
In a post online in June, Orbán called the fine “outrageous and unacceptable.”
“It seems that illegal #migrants are more important to the Brussels bureaucrats than their own European citizens,” he stated.
Hungary previously had transit zones on its border with Serbia, which the Court of Justice of the European Union deemed illegal, according to a Commission press release. The transit zones have since been removed.
The EU implemented a new asylum policy in April that requires member nations to accept “thousands of migrants” from “frontline” countries or provide additional resources and funding, the BBC reported. In 2023, around 380,000 people illegally crossed the EU’s borders, according to the outlet.
The EU Asylum and Migration Pact is slated to go into effect in two years, the BBC noted.
The nationalist government in Budapest has repeatedly clashed with EU policies for refugees and asylum seekers. Earlier this month, Orbán’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, told a news conference that the government was considering suing the EU for reimbursement of the funds it has spent on border security, ABC News reported.
Across Europe, nationalist and right-wing populist parties are gaining momentum, with Germany’s AfD achieving a historic victory in its recent elections.
In July, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party lost to the left-wing Labour party, although the right-wing vote was split between the Conservatives and Reform. Reform UK won 14% of total votes cast and Farage scored his first seat in Parliament.
Immigration is a persistent issue in Europe, as tensions have heightened in the U.K., Ireland and France over mass migration.
