Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini took a helicopter from Budapest during his visit to Hungary on Thursday (May 2) to visit Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the fence on the country's southern border with Serbia.
In a video taken during his flight and posted on his Facebook page, Salvini said the fence was built to block illegal migration and that entry into Europe was only possible with permission.
Another video showed Salvini and Orban embracing and touring a stretch of the border fence together.
During the 2015 crisis, migrants tried to travel from Greece through Macedonia and Serbia to EU member Hungary, until this route was sealed by border guards and fences.
Tens of thousands of refugees and migrants, mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, are stuck in Greece from when Balkan countries shut their borders in 2016.
Ahead of forthcoming European Parliament elections, Salvini, who leads Italy's League party, is hoping to put together a bloc of anti-immigration parties to challenge the traditionally predominant centre-left and centre-right groups.
Salvini wants to embrace other far-right or nationalist leaders whose parties are in different groups, such as Orban and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of Poland's ruling PiS party.
Orban said on Wednesday (May 1) the European Parliament's main centre-right group, the European People's Party (EPP) must forge an alliance with populist, nationalist groups.
His ruling Fidesz Party was suspended from the EPP in March over its record on respect for the rule of law, freedom of the press and minorities' rights.
Orban has denied violating any EU principles and said he wants to remain part of the EPP, which gives him mainstream respectability and influence that other European populists lack.
He has made anti-immigration a cornerstone of his politics, ordering razor wire fences to be set up and migrants to be held in detention zones while their asylum cases are dealt with - nearly all of which are turned down.
Salvini, who is Italy's deputy prime minister and interior minister, is eager to win Orban over to his cause.
Voters in the 28-nation EU vote this month to elect a new European Parliament.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters