Hungarian PM backs Salvini in attack on migration policy

THE next European Commission and Parliament should send back illegal migrants and build up border defences, Viktor Orban said yesterday.

The Hungarian prime minister launched his latest attack on EU migration policy on a visit to show solidarity with Matteo Salvini, the hard-right Italian interior minister.

At a meeting in Milan, Mr Orban said the future of Europe depended on the success of Mr Salvini, who has refused to allow migrant rescue ships to dock in Italy.

“You mustn’t give way, we’re behind you in trying to defend Italy’s maritime borders,” said Mr Orban.

The visit is seen as the early stages of an anti-migration front in advance of next May’s European parliament election, which is being billed as a battle between Europe’s liberals and populists with migration as the key issue.

Left-wing groups demonstrated near the Orban-salvini meeting under the slogan “Europe Without Walls”.

Mr Orban has become a cheerleader for Europe’s populist Right-wing parties, clashing head on with EU officials, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel over the migration issue.

He praised Mr Salvini for being the first senior figure in Europe’s Mediterranean countries to prove that “migration can also be stopped by sea”.

In the most recent case, a boat with around 100 migrants on board was allowed to dock after Albania and Ireland agreed to take a share.

Mr Salvini has been locked in talks with countries such as Germany which return migrants to Italy on the basis of EU rules which say migrants must stay in the first EU country that they land in.