European Parliament approves controversial migration pact, sparking uproar from nationalists who vow to bring it down after EU election
The European Parliament has approved the controversial EU Asylum and
Migration Pact, which will see countries forced to accept their fair
share of new arrivals into the bloc or pay a fine for every migrant they
reject.
The new asylum and migration package was passed largely with votes
from lawmakers affiliated with the European People’s Party, the
Socialists and Democrats (S&D), and Renew Europe, with MEPs being
urged to swallow their criticisms of the scheme and vote for the
compromise legislation.
“History made,” tweeted European Parliament President Roberta Metsola
as she praised what she described as a “robust legislative framework on
how to deal with migration and asylum,” noting it had been “10 years in
the making” but the EU had kept its word.
Some MEPs on both the left and the center-right revealed they voted through the pact despite its many flaws.
“The new legislation is not perfect but we can only make migration
manageable and humane with one European solution,” said Hilde Vautmans,
foreign affairs coordinator for Renew Europe.
Nationalist politicians across Europe expressed their anger at the
passing of the pact, which they claim cedes sovereignty to an
ever-centralized European Union.
“The Migration Pact organizes the tutelage and control of nations,
the legal impunity of NGOs complicit with smugglers,” tweeted Marine Le
Pen of France’s National Rally. She further vowed to “put an end to the
accelerated pursuit of policies to encourage and organize mass
immigration,” on June 9 at the EU elections in which her party is
expected to win the most French seats.
“Countries will be forced to welcome thousands of migrants into their
towns and villages or pay dearly to be spared!” Bardella told the
chamber, warning that Brussels wants to redistribute new arrivals while
nationalist politicians want to “send them back.”
After the vote, Bardella took to social media to denounce the
“terrible European Migration Pact” that seeks to “impose the
distribution of migrants in our municipalities under penalty of
financial sanctions.”
Voting was briefly suspended on Wednesday evening due to a protest
from inside the chamber from left-wing activists who urged those of
their political persuasion to vote down the bill on humanitarian
grounds.
“This Pact kills, vote ‘No!'” they chanted from the observation rooms as they threw paper airplanes down into the auditorium.
The Hungarian government reiterated its opposition to the pact
following the vote with spokesperson Zoltan Kovacs citing Foreign
Minister Péter Szijjártó who “declared that regardless of any migration
pact adopted by the European Parliament, Hungary will maintain its legal
and physical border barriers and will not allow illegal immigrants
entry, opposing the pro-war and pro-migration stance of Brussels’
leadership.”
The majority of lawmakers who passed through the pact were lukewarm
on its contents but considered it to be a compromise to end the status
quo existing in a Europe plagued by illegal immigration. The argument on
the left is that it goes too far in targeting illegal migrants, while
those on the right consider it to be yet another sovereignty
