"Hungary is not far away from issuing orders to open fire on refugees," said one of the European Union's foreign ministers on Tuesday, and called for the country to be suspended or even expelled from the EU because of its "massive violation" of the EU's fundamental values.
And it's true that Hungary has built a 175-km razor-wire fence along its southern border to keep migrants out. It has deployed 10,000 police and soldiers along that border, and is recruiting 3,000 "border-hunters" equipped with pepper spray and loaded pistols to help them in their task. And on Oct. 2 it will hold a special referendum asking Hungarians: "Do you want the European Union to be able to mandate the obligatory resettlement of non-Hungarian citizens into Hungary even without the approval of the National Assembly?"
The answer that Prime Minister Viktor Orban wants is "no," and he is certain to get it. He was an anti-communist student radical when I first interviewed him almost 30 years ago in the dying days of the Soviet empire. Now he is a right-wing demagogue — but he knew what Hungarians really thought about communist rule then, and he understands what they think about giving asylum to Muslim refugees now.