VIENNA (AP) — Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz says he’s positioning his country as a bridge between the “Visegrad group” of eastern European nations and their western counterparts.
VIENNA (AP) — Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz says he’s positioning his country as a bridge between the “Visegrad group” of eastern European nations and their western counterparts.
Kurz said he agreed with the Visegrad countries — Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia — that a quota system for migrants was unworkable and on the need to strengthen external borders.
Speaking alongside Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Tuesday, Kurz said that “it’s in all of our interests that we work together.”
Orban says Europe’s border-free travel zone can only work with “radical” external border protections like the fence he had constructed.
He says: “what’s happening today is they want to open the external borders and close the internal ones, this is the exact opposite.”
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, right, welcomes Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, left, at the federal chancellery in Vienna, Austria, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban smiles as he speaks at a joint news conference with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz at the federal chancellery in Vienna, Austria, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, from left, attend a joint news conference at the federal chancellery in Vienna, Austria, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, right, welcomes Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, left, at the federal chancellery in Vienna, Austria, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)
