Italy's new prime minister is a woman who never gives up, Viktor Orbán commented.Continue reading
The new, center-right Italian government has returned to the strict policy against illegal migration supported by the Hungarian government.
With more than eight hundred people on board, three non-governmental organization (NGO) ships are waiting to dock off the Italian coast, but Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi continue to say no to them, Hungarian news agency MTI reported on Thursday.
Piantedosi said in an interview with the daily Corriere della Sera on Wednesday that with the new right-wing government, Rome would no longer accept people who are taken on board foreign ships at sea. He stressed that NGO boats “regularly carry out their activities without the minimum involvement of the authorities”.
“We must not forget the law of the sea. If you come across a ship in difficulty, you have to save those on board. But if you go there and back between the African coast and Italy carrying migrants, you are in open violation of maritime law and international law,” the article quoted Giorgia Meloni as saying.
The Hungarian government has previously repeatedly praised the migration policy of the first government of Giuseppe Conte, in which Matteo Salvini, president of the League party, was interior minister (he is now one of the deputy prime ministers of the Meloni government)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in 2019 that “Salvini stopped migration at sea, Hungary on land”. The politician pointed out that Hungary had been curbing illegal immigration since 2015 by erecting a fence on its southern border and imposing strict legislation.
He stressed that Salvini had “driven a nail into the coffin of pro-immigration politicians”, proving that they were lying when they said migration could not be stopped.
Featured photo via MTI/EPA/ANSA/Carmelo Imbesi