PM Orbán addresses right-wing rally in Rome
September 24th, 2019A left-liberal website publishes Ferenc Gyurcsány’s commentary suspecting Mr Orbán of planning to become the leader of the sovereignist camp in Europe. A pro-government commentator, on the other hand, thinks that the Prime Minister is just representative of the majority of Europeans who oppose unfettered mass immigration.
At the annual youth rally of the right-wing Italian party Fratelli d’Italia, Mr Orbán said he and his allies represent ‘a minority among the European elites, but a majority among the people’. In a previous address to the same audience, Italian PM Giuseppe Conte criticised him for rejecting the migrant quota system proposed by the Italian government. The Hungarian Prime Minister retorted that Hungary was ready to give a helping hand to Italy on many things but accepting a share of migrants according to a compulsory quota was not one of them. He also said he was expecting Italy to return to the (sovereignist) camp. Nicola Zingaretti, leader of the Democratic Party which replaced the right-wing Lega party in the government coalition earlier this month, reacted to such remarks by calling Mr Orbán an enemy of Italy.
Hirklikk reproduces a Facebok post by former left-wing Prime Minister and DK party leader Ferenc Gyurcsány, in which he acknowledges that Mr Orbán’s hosts ‘might not be a neo-fascist party’. They are simply just like Fidesz, he writes. Mr Gyurcsány believes the Hungarian Prime Minister aspires to the role of leader of the European ‘radical, nationalist populist camp’. After the Austrian Freedom Party was ousted from the government and Italian Lega leader Salvini has also found himself in opposition, that role is vacant, he explains.
In Magyar Nemzet, Levente Sitkei describes the scene when, in the presence of the Hungarian Prime Minister, the Rome public stood up and sang the song ’Avanti Ragazzi di Buda’ (Forward Lads of Buda) commemorating the 1956 Hungarian revolution. He interprets this as an expression of politics with a strong footing within the people, in contrast to the one based on deals among the elites. He interprets the new Italian government as representing the latter, while the majority of the population disagrees with the decision by the Italian authorities to reopen Italy’s ports to ships carrying migrants.