Matteo Salvini, who has been serving as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy since 2022, came to Budapest, Hungary for the informal meeting of EU transport ministers. During his visit he also met with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Friday, 20 September.
The agenda of the one-on-one has not been made public. However, according to media reports, the main topics were migration and the new populist EP group Patriots for Europe between the two statesmen. PM Orbán hosted Salvini at the official workplace of the Prime Minister of Hungary, the Carmelite Monastery of Buda in the Castle District of Budapest.
Salvini is not a member of PM Meloni’s party Fratelli d’Italia. Rather, he is a member of another populist Italian party, Lega Nord, whose MEPs caucus with the Patriots, unlike FdI.
‘Salvini, much like Orbán, has been a vocal opponent of mass illegal migration’
On his social media page PM Orbán wrote: ‘We have set aside the rubber boots for an hour, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini is visiting Budapest’. The Prime Minister is referring to his efforts to help contain the flooding of the Danube River, which he has suspended briefly for a diplomatic meeting.
Salvini, much like Orbán, has been a vocal opponent of mass illegal migration. He is currently being tried on kidnapping charges for not allowing migrant boats to dock on the island of Lampedusa in August 2019 as Minister of the Interior. The prosecution in his country is asking for a six-year prison sentence for the Lega leader. Lampedusa has been one of the epicentres of the European migration crisis.
The PM’s political director Balázs Orbán took to Twitter yesterday to make the Hungarian position clear in the Salvini case.
Every country has the right to defend its borders. Period. https://t.co/MmUEEs9m5J
— Balázs Orbán (@BalazsOrban_HU) September 20, 2024
Minister Salvini also posted on social media following his meeting with the Hungarian PM.
In the posts Matteo Salvini said:
‘It was a pleasure to meet my friend Viktor Orbán here in Budapest, where I attended the informal council of EU Transport Ministers and bilaterals with colleagues from Hungary, Germany and Albania. Over an hour of discussion on cooperation between our two countries, the balance of the EU, the defence of its borders and international challenges. See you soon, Viktor!’
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