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Austria accused of ‘stupidity’ in crisis

Hungary has accused Austria of confusing "solidarity and stupidity" after Vienna said that nations which do not accept their share of refugees under European Union quotas should face sanctions.

Austria accused of 'stupidity' in crisis
Refugees at the Nickelsdorf border crossing. File photo: APA

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann had said that countries who did not cooperate with the programme and received more money from the EU than they put in should see their subsidies cut.

“The Austrian chancellor does not see the difference between solidarity and stupidity” said Budapest's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.

“Solidarity means helping people who are in danger where they live, and helping them to return home once the conflict is finished,” Szijjarto told Hungarian national press agency MTI on Sunday.

“Stupidity is letting hundreds of thousands of people — millions — into Europe with no controls, while everyone, Europeans and migrants alike, can see they'll never get what they hoped for here,” he said.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has also threatened legal action against EU countries that refused to accept refugees under the bloc's quota programme, specifically mentioning Hungary and Slovakia.

Szijjarto, a member of Viktor Orban's hardline right-wing government, accused foreign politicians of “using blackmail to bring more migrants into Europe, then distributing them through a system of obligatory quotas”.

According to plans to distribute 160,000 refugees and migrants across the bloc, Slovakia and Hungary are due to take in around 2,300 people each. But the relocation plan, drawn up in September, is proving to be slow moving and difficult to put into effect.

FAR-RIGHT

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Radical Austrian nationalist Martin Sellner has been banned from entering Germany, it emerged on Tuesday, days after he was deported from Switzerland.

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Sellner, a leader of Austria’s white pride Identitarian Movement, posted a video of himself on X, formerly Twitter, reading out a letter he said was from the city of Potsdam.

A spokeswoman for the city authorities confirmed to AFP that an EU citizen had been served with a “ban on their freedom of movement in Germany”.

The person can no longer enter or stay in Germany “with immediate effect” and could be stopped by police or deported if they try to enter the country, the spokeswoman said, declining to name the individual for privacy reasons.

READ ALSO: Who is Austria’s far-right figurehead banned across Europe?

“We have to show that the state is not powerless and will use its legitimate means,” Mike Schubert, the mayor of Potsdam, said in a statement.

Sellner caused an uproar in Germany after allegedly discussing the Identitarian concept of “remigration” with members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) at a meeting in Potsdam in November.

Reports of the meeting sparked a huge wave of protests against the AfD, with tens of thousands of Germans attending demonstrations across the country.

READ ALSO:

Swiss police said Sunday they had prevented a hundred-strong far-right gathering due to be addressed by Sellner, adding that he had been arrested and deported.

The Saturday meeting had been organised by the far-right Junge Tat group, known for its anti-immigration and anti-Islamic views.

The group is also a proponent of the far-right white nationalist Great Replacement conspiracy theory espoused by Sellner’s Identitarian Movement.

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