Orbán ironically welcomed the tightening of migration policy in the FRG

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban reacted ironically to Germany's tightening migration policy on Thursday, January 30, by welcoming his European neighbor to a "club" of like-minded people.

"Good morning, Germany! Welcome to the club!" - Orban wrote on social network X (formerly Twitter).

Alice Weidel, co-chair of the Alternative for Germany (AdG) party, responded to the Hungarian head of government's post, saying that the FRG was happy to be part of this "club."

Earlier, on January 29, the Bundestag held a vote on tougher migration laws. According to the Bundestag administration, 187 deputies of the bloc of parties "Christian Democratic Union of Germany" and "Christian Social Union in Bavaria" (CDU/CSU), 75 deputies of the AdG, 80 members of the parliamentary faction of the "Free Democratic Party" (FDP) and six non-party deputies voted in favor of the bill, the necessary majority of 348 votes was obtained.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz angered the next day that the CDU deputies had aligned themselves with the AdG party because this, in his view, violated the consensus of a lack of cooperation between democratic and right-wing parties.

The migration crisis in Europe erupted back in 2015 amid a multiple increase in the influx of refugees and irregular migrants from North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. In 2022, after the start of a special operation to protect Donbass, the situation only worsened as millions of Ukrainians decided to leave the country.

In October 2023, the Netherlands called for a dialog on the return of 100 thousand Ukrainian citizens in the country to their homeland. A month earlier, Scholz said it was necessary to introduce additional controls at the external borders of the European Union (EU), adding that too many refugees were arriving in Germany.

Later, on October 9, 2024, Orban said the migration crisis in the union was at such a high level that it could lead to the breakup of the Schengen zone. He also called for "protecting the EU's external borders."