Angela Merkel meets V4 leaders

Pro-government columnists commenting on the Bratislava summit disagree on whether German Chancellor Merkel has joined the Visegrád leaders in their stance against mass migration to Europe.

Magyar Nemzet’s László Szőcs welcomes the agreement between the Visegrad 4 leaders and German Chancellor Merkel on the need to halt migration from Morocco. The pro-government columnist suggests that Chancellor Merkel seems to have abandoned her earlier welcoming stance to mass migration, and now agrees with the Visegrád leaders that illegal migration to Europe should be stopped, while people in need of humanitarian help should be supported in their homelands. Szőcs hopes that Germany will join the Visegrád countries and make their anti-immigration coalition within the EU even stronger.

In Magyar Hírlap, Mariann Őry on the other hand, believes that by specifying their agreement on illegal immigration from Morocco, the Visegrád 4 and Mrs Merkel actually implied that they disagree on mass immigration from the rest of the world. She agrees with PM Orbán’s statement that important decisions in the EU (including immigration) should be taken only after the European Parliamentary elections. The pro-government commentator thinks that the Visegrád countries have very successfully cooperated on various issues, and together they are able to defend their anti-immigration vision against more powerful Western European actors – including the Brussels leadership and Berlin, who want to divide the Visegrad group.

Left-wing media outlets have not yet commented the Bratislava summit.

Tags: EU, Merkel, migration, Orbán, Visegrád 4