Trump, Hungary and Poland blame migrants for unrest in France

The prime ministers of Hungary, Péter Magyar, and Poland, Donald Tusk, linked the violent riots in France to permissive migration policies, a reading that matches Donald Trump's. The debate came after several countries unsuccessfully tried to get the European summit to criticise Spain's regularisation programme.

Friday's European Council left a migration debate that did not end when the room emptied. Two of the leaders present, the prime ministers of Hungary and Poland, tied the violent unrest that shook France to an immigration policy that is too permissive. The reading matches that of the US president, **Donald Trump**, who claimed that "France is on fire" and argued that "immigration of people from a totally different world, people with hate in their hearts, has destroyed that once-great country".

## Hungary calls for the "toughest possible" approach

Hungary's new prime minister, **Péter Magyar**, posted images of the Limoges town hall burning and described the scenes from France as "shocking". "Faced with this senseless destruction and unjustified violence, it may now be clearer to everyone why Hungary advocates the toughest possible approach to migration," he wrote. Magyar added that they will not weaken their "border protection or our immigration policy under any pressure".

He also welcomed the summit's direction: "I am glad that the current EU summit has made clear that the overwhelming majority of European countries have proge up and want to break with the permissive policies of the past".

## Poland: "We will not repeat the mistakes of other countries"

Polish prime minister **Donald Tusk**, of the European People's Party, was more cautious and did not mention France. Even so, he wrote on social media that "Poland will not repeat the mistakes of other European countries, nor pay for them". He argued that his country firmly protects "the border against illegal migration", has its own asylum policy —it does not accept applications— and deports those who abusa Polish law. "On security we will be relentless. This is what I told the leaders of Europe in Brussels," he stressed.

## The attempt to criticise Spain's regularisation programme

The statements come after a heated debate at the summit. **Poland, Italy and Denmark** tried to get the conclusions to include an implicit criticism of the mass regularisation promoted by the Spanish government, warning against decisions that create a "pull effect" and asking the European Commission for more cooperation when a national policy affects the rest of the member states.

The text did not go through due to opposition from **Spain, Luxembourg and France**. According to diplomatic sources, French president **Emmanuel Macron** backed Pedro Sánchez against the harshness of leaders such as Danish prime minister **Mette Frederiksen** or the Czech **Andrej Babiš**, who went as far as to say that "some politicians are capable of replacing the population with migrants just to stay in those positions and in government".

Macron avoided detailing what peine behind closed doors, but warned: "When you politicise, you divide, you return to national solutions and you are ineffective". Sánchez defended the Spanish policy: "One thing is the discourse, if you allow me, the blah blah blah, and another thing is reality. The data show that Spain is pursuing a very responsible policy".