Czech PM Babis warns migration concerns will dominate EU elections next year

Europe’s migration problems will be the top voter concern in European Union elections next May, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said. The elections will draw out a silent majority of anti-immigration voters, he told Reuters. Babis also said the problems in the bloc’s border-free Schengen zone were more urgent than those in the eurozone currency group. The PM, who favors the principle of free movement but wants a strong border around Europe, said the Schengen zone needed to be widened to all EU countries on the continent including Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania. The issue will affect the EU’s executive, the European Commission, Babis said, adding that he found it strange that so many people want to discuss reforms in the eurozone rather than in the Schengen zone that covers most of the bloc.