Hungary’s New PM Delivers a Hard Reality Check After France Burns: Borders Matter
Peter Magyar, the center-right leader who ousted Viktor Orban in a landslide earlier this year, watched French cities erupt into riots, arson, and looting over the weekend and immediately linked the chaos to failed open-border policies.
He stated that the senseless destruction and violence make it clear why Hungary will not weaken its border protection or immigration policy under any pressure from the EU, adding that most of Europe has finally woken up and wants to break with the permissive approaches of the past.
This stance is no surprise to those tracking Magyar’s first months in office. Despite his pro-EU, anti-corruption, and rule-of-law agenda that secured the release of frozen funds, he has extended Hungary’s migration emergency measures, demanded EU money to reinforce the southern fence, and rejected any softening of controls while negotiating an end to the daily fine Brussels has been hitting Budapest with for years.
The French unrest, triggered by cost-of-living protests that spiraled into widespread vandalism, shop looting, and the torching of historic buildings like Limoges town hall, with nearly 1,800 arrests and hundreds of officers injured, serves as the latest data point for leaders arguing that unchecked migration strains social cohesion and public order.
Magyar’s response underscores a growing consensus among several European governments that strict external borders and returns of illegal migrants are the practical path forward, not the open policies that helped fuel the current crises.