Hungary & Italy: Helping families or replacing the population?

House Speaker László Kövér held talks with Matteo Salvini, interior minister of Italy and head of the League party, on Wednesday.

Parties at the talks shared a position on illegal migration and the future of Europe, with special regard to the question whether “helping families or promoting immigration and replacing the population” would be in the focus, Kövér told Hungarian public media in Rome in the evening.

Kövér congratulated Salvini on Italy’s stopping illegal migrants at sea, and noted that Hungary had demonstrated that migration could be stopped on land.

On another subject, Kövér said that Hungary’s ruling Fidesz “sees its future in the European People’s Party”. Salvini and his party wish to “stay partners and allies” with Fidesz; the idea that Fidesz should quit the EPP was not raised at the talks and “Fidesz is not planning to”, he said. The two parties share the position that the EPP should be “more open to political forces on the right, too, not only on the left”, Kövér said and argued that it could enhance EPP’s reputation and open up alternatives to voters.

Salvini could visit Hungary later in April or early May, at the invitation of Sándor Pintér, Hungary’s interior minister, Kövér said.

Kövér had talks with Maria Elisabetta Alberta Casellati, president of the Senate, and Roberto Fico, speaker of the house of representatives focusing on ways to build closer ties between the parliaments of Hungary and Italy.

During talks with Fico, a member of the Five Star Movement, Kövér urged cooperation concerning the EU’s next budget aimed at avoiding cuts to the community’s structural funds and common agricultural policy financing.

Kövér also had talks with Senator Maurizio Gasparri, delegated by Forza Italia, the head of the Senate’s immunity committee.

Featured image: MTI

Source: MTI