New alliance between anti-migration hardliners Orban and Salvini
By HUNGARY JOURNAL
VoiceOfEurope.com
3 September 2018
Politicians of Italy’s Lega praise good relations between Italian Minister of Interior Matteo Salvini and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, while analysts react to their remarks about Emmanuel Macron.
Lega MP Matteo Bianchi told Hungarian daily Magyar Hirlap that migration and European identity are important topics for both leaders. He reminded that Lega wants to change the EU, to make it the union of all member states, instead of Berlin’s and Paris’s domination.
Lega lawmaker Paolo Grimoldi stressed that the relocation quota is a fake problem, the real problem is that illegal migrants shouldn’t be arriving on Europe’s territory in the first place. He said that Italy can’t force Hungary to carry the consequences of failures made by other countries.
Gergely Berzi, the Szazadveg Foundation’s Director of Foreign Affairs told Magyar Hirlap that the EU’s anti-immigration politicians are following Orban’s policies, so he’s the leader of these forces, regardless of Hungary’s size. He called the division between and pro-, and the anti-immigration forces “historic”, that can determine the next decades of Europe.
Edit Zgut, analyst at the Political Capital think tank wrote 24.hu that while Orban is portraying himself as the hero of eurosceptic, anti-immigration radicals, he uses migration to legitimise his political system in the EU. According to her, the Orban-Salvini meeting is a well-timed message to the European People’s Party of which Orban’s Fidesz is a member.
The PM’s chief security advisor, Gyorgy Bakondi told M1 that Hungary and Italy agree on a number of issues, including the position that Europe’s borders must be protected and that asylum seekers who have entered Europe but are not eligible for refugee status should be repatriated.
