Just hours after the Dutch, the Hungarian government also announced that it intends to apply to be exempted from EU asylum procedure regulations. In Strasbourg, the Hungarian minister of European affairs, Janos Boka, declared that this so-called opt-out from the asylum laws known as the Dublin Regulation was needed.

"Hungary believes, like the Netherlands, that stricter national controls on migration are essential, to protect public services and sovereignty," said Boka.

The new Dutch coalition government, led by the far-right PVV party under Geert Wilders, is ideologically very close to Hungary's ruling party, Fidesz. Now they want to work together to pressure the European Commission and the other EU members into taking a hard line on asylum policy.

The declared aim of the Dutch minister for asylum, the PVV's Marjolein Faber, is to establish the "toughest migration policy ever" in the Netherlands. In order to do this, she wants to declare a "state of emergency" that would allow her to act without the approval of the Dutch parliament, should the need arise. For its part, the Hungarian government has been issuing and relying on emergency decrees since the start of the COVID-19 crisis.

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Hungary also currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council. In this role, its minister for European affairs, Boka, ought to be advocating on behalf of the EU's joint asylum policy. Reforms to this policy were finally approved in April, by the European Parliament and a majority of member-state governments.

Instead,........

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