Salvini: Hungarian economic and family policies are a model for Italy

The economic and social policies of the Hungarian government could serve as a model for Italy, League party leader Matteo Salvini told Hungarian conservative daily Magyar Hírlap during a Rome rally of the opposition right parties on Saturday.

“Italy needs stability, competent politicians and jobs. The model implemented by Hungary is good and serves as a model for Italy. Job creation, family subsidies, a flat tax and encouraging childbirth has been successful in Hungary and Italy could learn from them,” Salvini told Magyar Hírlap. “I much appreciate Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and I find his economic and social measures enviable.”

The rally was jointly organized by Salvini’s League party, Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy (FdI) and Silvio Berlusconi’s The People of Liberty (PdL), formerly Forza Italia. Due to some restrictions of mass gatherings still in place in Italy, the number of participants was limited to 4,200. At the rally, entitled “Together for Italy and jobs”, Salvini said that the right-wing coalition is ready to assume governing whether an election will be held “in a week or six months”.

“Italy needs job creation, not supporting illegal immigration. We have no use for those who look with disgust at the crucifix, Bethlehem or the rosary. If we cannot fill the cradles again, we are a doomed nation,” Salvini said. “In order for families to want children, they need financial support, safety and moral recognition. We are a great and strong nation, no one can rob us from our faith in a better and brighter future.”

FdI leader Giorgia Meloni said that limiting the number of participants showed that the government is afraid of the opposition right, because they voice the will of the people. She also criticized the government for giving preference to migrants over Italian nationals. Her party is gathering signatures to call for early elections in September.

Referring to Matteo Salvini facing a trial for his efforts to stop migrant ships, Antonio Tajani, vice-president of PdL, said that it was a “conspiracy by the judiciary”.

“We are fighting a freedom fight every day, because the future of the country is at stake,” Tajani said. “We will always stand on the side of justice, as our parents sided with the Budapest youth when they had the courage to face the Soviet tanks to rid the country of the Communist dictatorship,” he told Magyar Hírlap.  

Title image: League party leader Matteo Salvini speaks during a center-right opposition rally in Rome’s central Piazza del Popolo, Saturday, July 4, 2020. Writing beneath Salvini reads in Italian: “Together for Italy of Work.” (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)