Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš has condemned the past approach of Merkel’s Germany and the European Union to illegal immigration, branding it a “threat to European civilisation”.
Andrej Babiš, a Slovak-origin populist and billionaire tycoon sometimes described as the ‘Czech Trump’, told national television: “We do not want to live here in Africa or the Middle East. We have to stop [immigration from these places].”
He predicted that if immigration was not brought under control, public anger and disillusionment would grow, warning “Chemnitz is around the corner” — a reference to the large-scale public protests against Germany’s migrant policy following the fatal stabbing of a local man, allegedly by a Syrian and an Iraqi with a string of previous convictions.
“We have 1.5 million illegal migrants here. Our return policy is bad,” added the ANO leader, referring to the EU’s weak record on returning bogus asylum seekers, including the aforementioned Iraqi in Chemnitz, and killers like Anis Amri, who should not have been in Germany at all when he drove a stolen lorry into a packed Christmas market, having lied about his nationality, used multiple false identities, and been scheduled for deportation but was not detained while it was arranged.
As the leader of one of the Visegrád group of Central European nations opposed to mass migration and multiculturalism, now allied with Austria’s new conservative-nationalist coalition government and Italy’s insurgent populist coalition, Babiš was blunt on those Western European countries still pushing open borders policies.
“If they want to have more Islamic State supporters in France, the Netherlands or Belgium than they have now, that’s up to them,” he said.
He was very clear that the Czech Republic, like Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, would continue to defy the EU’s attempts to redistribute migrants arriving in the EU under a compulsory quota system.
“We have lost four years foolishly debating quotas. In short, the message being sent is that Europe is open and that we have to care for everyone who comes illegally and will disperse them amongst us,” he explained in a separate interview, accusing migrants of “asylum shopping”.
Babiš, like Italian deputy prime minister, interior minister, and League leader Matteo Salvini, believes promoting strong borders is the correct solution to the migrant crisis, and wants the EU to help stabilise Libya and come to Turkey-style deals with that country, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt so they stop migrants at their own external borders.
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