Orban holds talks with populist politicians

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban hosted talks on Thursday with populist politicians from Italy and Poland in a bid to create a new right-wing nationalist political force on the European stage.

The trilateral meeting brought Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Italy's former interior minister Matteo Salvini to Hungary's capital of Budapest, where at a press briefing following the talks, the politicians vowed to continue their cooperation in pursuit of what Orban called a "European renaissance."

The mini-summit came exactly two weeks after Orban's ruling Fidesz party finalized a break with its centre-right political family, the European People's Party (EPP), bringing an end to years of conflict over Hungary's adherence to democratic norms and Orban's construction of what he calls an "illiberal democracy."

"The strongest right-wing party to date, the European People's Party, visibly committed itself to working with the European left, so many millions of Europeans have been left unrepresented," Orban said.

His party now without a caucus in the European Parliament, Orban has signalled he hopes to "reorganize the European right wing" and find a home in Brussels for Hungarian lawmakers in alliance with other anti-immigration parties, like those of Salvini and Morawiecki.

Salvini, who shares Orban's firm opposition to immigration, heads Italy's League, the largest member party of the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the European Parliament.

Salvini noted on Wednesday that if the group were to merge with the eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) - which contains Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party - the formation would be the parliament's second-largest bloc after the powerful EPP.

"We propose ourselves as the historical and founding nucleus of an alternative to this left that calls into question the very roots of Europe, and we do not set limits," Salvini said.

Poland's ruling party shares Fidesz's disaffection with the EU, with both parties arguing Brussels has infringed on their sovereign decisions.

The conflict with the bloc came to a head late last year, when Hungary and Poland vetoed the bloc's seven-year budget and coronavirus recovery package over provisions that tied the payment of EU funds to following the rule of law.

On Thursday, Morawiecki echoed Orban's calls for a European political force that “respects national sovereignty and freedom" and defends traditional values.

"Today we can see that Europe is frustrated, that it's being torn by various contradictions and that the European elites in Brussels are trying to present the European Union as a project of these Brussels elitist groups," Morawiecki said.

Orban said the politicians would meet again in May, most likely in Warsaw.