EXACTLY a year after the migrant crisis gripped his hometown, the Mayor of Mórahalom is in good spirits – Hungary is about to go to the polls – and he predicts the results will send a strong message to the heart of Brussels.
Zoltán Nógrádi has been mayor of the small town in Hungary’s Csongrád County for 22 years.
He is the leader of a town on the edge, not just a 30km border with non-EU Serbia, but the edge of the Schengen zone, the last border of the EU bloc.
The town’s geographical position as the entrance to Europe makes it a gateway for tourism, a point on many travellers’ journeys – but for the last two years – it has also made it the centre of a crisis which has stunned the rest of Europe.
Sitting in his office in the centre of a sleepy town, Mr Nógrádi admits he never imagined anything quite like the migrant crisis exploding on his doorstep.
