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.