Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Tuesday that he was looking forward to his first meeting with Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, whom he called his hero.
ROME (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th August, 2018) Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Tuesday that he was looking forward to his first meeting with Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, whom he called his hero.
"I want to meet Salvini very much. He is my hero, my soulmate. I admire him a lot. I think I have some experience that I would like to share with him," Orban said ahead of his meeting with Salvini.
The controversial meeting between the two politicians, who are known for their tough stance on migrants, began in Milan at 15:00 GMT. People representing a number of opposition parties, trade unions and non-governmental organizations engaged in refugees' rights protection are reported to be protesting the meeting in the city.
The leaders of the Five Star Movement party, which is forming Italy's parliamentary coalition along with Salvini-led League party, expressed concern over the meeting as well, issuing a statement which stressed that the meeting was a political move and not a governmental event.
On Thursday, Salvini said that Italy was no longer a refugee camp and that his goal was to implement the toughest policy toward illegal migrants arriving in the country by sea, similar to the Australian "No Way" principle, which has cut nearly all access to the continent to migrants arriving by boat.
According to the International Organization for Migration, over 19,700 migrants have reached Italy by sea in 2018 so far.
