The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and her Hungarian counterpart, the ultra-conservative Viktor Orbán, have once again exhibited the ideological harmony they maintain. Both met this Monday at the Presidential Palace in Rome on the occasion of a brief European tour of the Head of Government of Hungary before assuming the rotating presidency of the European Council next July. During their meeting, the leaders reaffirmed the affinity that unites them on issues such as the fight against irregular immigration and low birth rates. Meloni has unwaveringly supported the project of the Hungarian presidency, which will have these issues among its priorities. “We must work together so that the demographic challenge is a priority for everyone, and a strong Europe becomes a protagonist in the world,” she noted.
The Italian leader has also emphasized the “excellent state” of bilateral relations between Italy and Hungary, while praising their anti-immigration policies. “We must consolidate a new European approach that is based on the defense of external borders, the fight against mass immigration and against human traffickers,” she asserted.
The two far-right leaders have left an image of harmony in Rome just in a decisive week for the negotiations of the distribution of positions in the community institutions, and on the verge of projecting an idea of strength of the sovereigntist axis and Meloni’s leadership. The prime minister’s objective is to reverse the isolation of Italy, the Union’s third largest economy, in the negotiations for major appointments.
Although the Italian leader has not commented on the matter, the Hungarian prime minister has criticized the election of senior officials of the EU institutions, considering that it is exclusive and that it is decided by the three traditional political families: popular, socialist and liberal. “The three major European parties do not involve the rest and relegate them to the opposition,” he lamented. “This does not respond to the principles of European collaboration. The original EU project was not this, it was based on inclusion and involving everyone, big and small.”
Orbán has also committed to collaborating with Meloni “to strengthen the parties of the European right”, although he has ruled out that his party, Fidesz, enters the group of European Conservatives and Reformists led by the Italian. The Hungarian leader has traditionally been one of Meloni’s closest allies in Europe, as well as a role model, although they do not share ranks in the European Parliament. The Hungarian leader, who left the European People’s Party group in 2021 abruptly due to his policies illiberals, has explained that his refusal to join Meloni’s group is due to the presence of a Romanian party which he defines as “anti-Hungarian”. This is the newly incorporated nationalist formation Alliance for the Union of Romanians.
Different opinions on Ukraine
Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.
Subscribe
In a joint statement, Meloni has also acknowledged that the positions of Rome and Budapest on the war in Ukraine do not coincide and explained that, despite this, both have discussed this matter normally. The Italian leader has publicly thanked the Hungarian Prime Minister for not blocking aid to kyiv both in the European institutions and in NATO, “even when he did not completely agree with it,” Meloni noted.
The Hungarian ultra-conservative leader has systematically hindered decision-making in support of kyiv, both within the EU and in NATO, where he has raised his right to veto on numerous occasions, although he has ended up giving in after arduous negotiations with the rest of the partners. Since the start of the Russian offensive, Hungary has stayed away from joint actions such as sending weapons and aid to Ukraine, and has made it clear that it will not change its position.
Orbán, the most fractious partner of the European Union, maintains fluid relations with the Kremlin, despite the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Last year he defied the EU and became the first EU bloc leader to meet with Vladimir Putin since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against the Russian president in early 2023 for alleged war crimes for his involvement in the “illegal deportation” of Ukrainian children.
Follow all the international information on Facebook and xor in our weekly newsletter.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_
#Meloni #Orbán #show #harmony #fight #immigration #birth #rates