Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has vowed to challenge last week’s ruling by the European Parliament at the European Court, the country’s national news agency reported Monday.
“We will not give up our right to defend a border, no-one can take an iota of that away from us,” he said during a speech in parliament in Budapest.
The statement was made after two-thirds of the EU parliament last week voted in favor of triggering article 7 against Hungary, calling its new legislation concerning the domestic media and opposition to EU migration policies a “threat” to democracy.
Orban has also denounced the proposed EU measure to deploy a 10,000-strong force to guard the borders of the bloc, stressing that each country has right to defend its own territory.
Hungarian government opposed the EU migration policy for a long time. In July, Budapest withdrew from a UN global agreement on standard ways for countries to address migration-related issues, citing security concerns as the reason for leaving the recently-agreed pact.
In June, the Hungarian parliament passed a legislation that would criminalize helping undocumented migrants to stay in the country, in order to stop the activity of the pro-migrant organizations.