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As images of burning cars and historic buildings in France and Italy ricochet across Europe, Hungarian and Polish leaders are seizing the opportunity, not to address the unrest, but to redefine the migration debate.
Hungary and Poland have both set milestones to allow migrants into their countries. Even to the point of being sentenced to fines and sanctions by the European Union justice system for refusing to open its doors to uncontrolled immigration, in the case of Hungary under former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, while Poland risked sanctions in 2025.
The latest available figures from Eurostat show that in 2025 France had almost 10 million foreign-born residents and Italy around 7 million. Poland had around a million foreign-born residents, while Hungary had fewer than 700,000, with most born in other EU countries and, in Poland’s case, around half from Ukraine.
TRUMP, WALTZ LINK FRANCE RIOTS TO MASS IMMIGRATION AS THOUSANDS ARE ARRESTED
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (L) and Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar shake hands before a roundtable discussion as part of a European Union summit at EU headquarters in Brussels October 16, 2026. EU leaders traveled to Brussels on October 15, 2026 for their biggest clash yet over the bloc’s next long-term budget, as they race to reach a deal before the French presidential election next year. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP via Getty Images) (Ludovic Marin / AFP via Getty Images)
In response to the violence, Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar declared on X that “Europe can count on Hungary”. He said: “In the face of this senseless destruction and unjustified violence, perhaps it is now clear to everyone why Hungary advocates the strictest possible approach to migration and why we will not weaken our border protection or immigration policy under any pressure. »
It’s a sentiment shared by his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk: “Poland will not repeat the mistakes of other European countries, nor will it pay for them,” he wrote on Sunday evening. “We firmly defend the border against illegal immigration, we have our own asylum policy (we do not accept applications), we deport those who break Polish law. On security issues we will be relentless.”
A protester waves a Palestinian flag next to a burning bus stop, Place de la République in Paris. The arrival of the Yellow Vests links student problems to broader economic discontent. Paris, France October 17, 2026 (Guy Smallman/Getty Images)
Swedish political scientist Daniel Schatz told Fox News Digital: “Burning buildings and looting stores in France and other countries are becoming political ammunition across Europe… Leaders who advocate tougher immigration policies have a direct message for their countries’ voters: ‘This is what we intend to prevent.’ Images of chaos can carry more political weight than a hundred political speeches. »
According to the latest available crime statistics from Eurostat, the official statistical office of the European Union, in 2024 France reported 304,900 crimes recorded by the police, one of the highest figures in the EU. Italy reported 142,600, while Poland, with 57,300, and Hungary, with 28,600, were among the lowest totals in Europe. As shown by Eurostat’s “perception measure” for 2023, i.e. the percentage of people reporting crime or vandalism in their region, France was again among the highest with around 20%, Italy between 14 and 17%, Poland between 7 and 8% and Hungary between 6 and 7%.
FRENCH SCHOOL RIOTS WIDE AS EXPERTS SAY FAR-LEFT ALLIANCE FEEDING ‘WIDENER CONFRONTATION’
Customers in front of the Zote Tarasy shopping center during high temperatures in Warsaw, Poland, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Damian Lemanski/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“In Central and Eastern European countries, the riots in France are linked to immigration and the issue of non-adaptation and non-integration of immigrants,” Boštjan Udovič, president of international relations at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, told Fox News Digital.
“Magyar and Tusk send a direct message to Brussels,” Schatz added, “being pro-European does not mean adhering to liberal immigration policies… Magyar explicitly presents French disorder as a justification for its migration policy. Tusk’s warning against repeating the mistakes of other countries reinforces a similar political message.”
Protesters climbed to the top of the Statue of the Republic as student unions and Yellow Vests united to demonstrate against the underfunding of education, austerity and the rising cost of living in Paris, France, October 17, 2026. (Guy Smallman/Getty Images)
Magyar said last week’s European Council summit “clearly showed that the overwhelming majority of European countries have woken up and want to break with the permissive policies of the past.” We hope it’s not too late.
“The Europe that we all love is today in great difficulty,” said the Hungarian leader. “It is also our responsibility to help preserve our continent as the most wonderful place in the world for our children and grandchildren… I express all my solidarity with the French people.”
ITALY’S SCHOOL VEIL BAN EXPOSES EUROPE’S ASSIMILATION STRUGGLE AS EXPERT WARNS US IT COULD BE NEXT
People attend the Independence March celebrating the 106th anniversary of Poland regaining its independence. Warsaw, Poland, November 11, 2024. Tens of thousands of Poles from Warsaw and across the country arrived in the Polish capital on the occasion of the United Nations Independence Day. (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Schatz said Magyar and Tusk “need not invoke Polish King Jan Sobieski’s leadership in the allied army that broke the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683 – a victory long celebrated as a defense of Christian Europe – to present themselves as the protectors of Europe. The burning buildings provide a contemporary and vivid backdrop to this message.”
Udovič is not surprised by Magyar and Tusk’s positions, noting that Central and Eastern European countries “generally link their EU membership to their identity, based primarily on a single nation.” It’s part of their history, he says, and “it would be unrealistic to expect countries that fought for independence on the basis of their national movement to adopt…a concept of a multi-ethnic society.”
Schatz added: “It’s ‘all politics is local’ happening across borders. The streets are French or Italian; the voters we’re talking to are Hungarian or Polish.” Udovič noted that Tusk is entering “a kind of pre-election campaign where migration will also be a problem.”
MELONI CONDEMNS ‘Psychic GANGS’ AFTER PROTESTS BECOME VIOLENT FROM ITALY
Shoppers on a pedestrian street near St. Stephen’s Basilica in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, August 25, 2026. Hungary’s central bank made its third consecutive interest rate cut after the inflation rate fell to its lowest level in a decade. (Akos Stiller/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The next Polish parliamentary elections are scheduled for November 2027, and former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, a possible opponent of Tusk, echoes his successor’s comments. “France is burning and we must be wise before the damage is done,” Morawiecki said on X on Monday morning. He added that his new center-right political coalition, Rozwoj Plus, “has a set of comprehensive solutions that will allow Poland to be not only prosperous, but also the safest country in the world!”
At the same time, “strict immigration policies enjoy broad support in Hungary,” said a former official in former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government and current board member of the Hungarian Atlantic Council. Félix Debrenti told Fox News Digital.
He said: “Magyar understands that abandoning Orbán’s tough approach to immigration and border protection could cost him significant political support, particularly at a time when his party is already facing increasing pressure. »
A demonstrator waving a French national flag walks past a fire during clashes preceding the start of a demonstration to protest the “high cost of living”, in Marseille, southern France, October 17, 2026. (Thibaud Moritz/AFP/Getty Images)
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He said: “Taking a strong stance on immigration allows the Magyars to divert public attention from the government’s domestic problems and focus on an issue that has broad national consensus,” Debrenti continued. “All this comes just days before October 23… when Hungarians commemorate the 1956 Revolution and the fight for freedom against Soviet oppression.”
Regarding the protests, Magyar posted: “Let there be no doubt: peacefully and lawfully protesting is one thing; vandalism and violence are another. The first is a fundamental right; the second is a serious crime. »
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