Hungarian and Polish PMs to meet Italy’s League leader to discuss new alliance ?
The prime ministers of Hungary and Poland will meet the leader of Italy’s rightist League party on Thursday for talks on forming a European political alliance, Hungarian state news agency MTI said on Tuesday.
The talks between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Italy’s League leader Matteo Salvini and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki will take place in Budapest, it said.
They will discuss creating an alliance involving the League, Orbán’s governing Fidesz party and Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, MTI quoted Orbán’s press chief as saying.
Fidesz quit the main pan-European centre-right bloc, the European People’s Party, earlier this month, two years after it was suspended for policies criticised by mainstream conservatives as authoritarian.
Orbán’s nationalist policies have long been widely seen as a better fit with smaller European blocs to the right of the EPP – such as the eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group that includes Poland’s PiS, or the right-wing Identity and Democracy (ID) group that includes France’s National Rally and Italy’s League.
Orbán has said he has held talks with like-minded parties about creating a new political alliance, and that Fidesz has been in talks with conservative political forces as it seeks a new group in the European Parliament.
He says
the goal is for there to be a political home for Fidesz and similar forces in Europe that do not want to host migrants and want to “protect” traditional families.
Orbán faces elections in 2022, with the opposition united against him for the first time.
Read alsoOrbán says Fidesz in talks with Italian, Polish parties on new European Parliament grouping
Salvini
Salvini said his Lega, Fidesz and Poland’s PiS shared common European values.
“In Budapest we’ll discuss the vision for a future Europe based on work, welfare, security, identity, the family and education,”
he said, adding that the formation of a new political family in Europe would not be on the agenda. “No common party group will be formed,” he told MTI. “We’ll be presenting a common charter with common values and aims.”
Salvini said Lega was not planning to join the European People’s Party. His dream, he added, was to unite the Identity and Democracy Party family and the European Conservatives and Reformists, as doing so would form the second largest EP group.
Morawiecki
Speaking at a press conference in Warsaw on Tuesday afternoon, Morawiecki said
Thursday’s meeting in Budapest will address “various European issues” with a particular focus on “political questions” related to the operation of the European Parliament.
The three leaders will also discuss “how the European programme can best be implemented in the interest of primarily Poland, Hungary and Italy,” he said.
Source: Reuters