Leading members of the European Parliament’s national conservative Patriots for Europe (PfE) group gathered for the first time since the party’s foundation in July for the Italian Lega’s annual rally in Pontida on Sunday, October 6th. As prosecutors are seeking a six-year prison term for Lega leader and deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini for trying to protect his country’s borders, this year’s rally focused heavily on illegal migration and solidarity with the Patriots’ persecuted ally.
The meeting’s highest-level attendees included party leaders such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán; the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) leader Geert Wilders; André Ventura, the head of the Portuguese Chega (Enough); the deputy chairman of the recent election winner Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) Marlen Svazek; and Spanish VOX’ national spokesman José Antonio Fuster. MEP Jordan Bardella, the chairman of the Patriots group and leader of its largest member party, the French National Rally (RN) could not attend in person but sent a video message to support his allies.
Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán set the tone by talking about his country as an example of a successful fight against illegal migration, proving that borders can be protected even while being at odds with Brussels. “Don’t think it’s impossible—we are living proof,” Orbán said, noting that “in Hungary, the number of migrants is zero. We don’t hand our country over to others. We don’t allow illegals in; we defend our borders. Today, Hungary is the safest country in Europe.”
Budapest also has its own legal dispute around migration after the European Court of Justice found that its law requiring migrants to register their asylum claims outside the borders is violating EU asylum policies, requiring Hungary to reform its entry procedure and pay a still-accumulating fine of over €300 million.
Hungary recently signaled readiness to implement reforms but says that it will not pay the fines for simply protecting the EU’s external borders, which is a duty of member states according to the EU treaties. If the Commission keeps insisting, Budapest already has its next step prepared. “If irregular immigration continues in Europe, we will bring migrants from Budapest to Brussels and drop them in front of EU offices. If they want them, they can keep them,” Orbán said.
“Today is the time to make a new oath in Pontida: all European patriots will stand by their leader, Matteo Salvini. No one will stop us,” PVV’s Geert Wilders said to a cheering crowd, before pointing to his party’s unexpected landslide victory in the Netherlands last year.
“They tried to stop me in the Netherlands, but they failed, and I am stronger than ever. They tried to stop Salvini, but they did not succeed. He will be stronger than ever,” he said. “Patriotism is a virtue, and Salvini is a virtuous man for fighting against the tsunami of mass illegal immigration that is making us foreigners in our own homes.”
As we wrote before, Italy’s deputy prime minister is being accused of “deprivation of liberty and abuse of office” after he, as interior minister, prevented an NGO ship from disembarking some eighty illegal migrants at Lampedusa in 2019. He is facing up to six years in prison following a trial later this month—simply for implementing the very policy for which voters gave him the mandate.
“Salvini is being persecuted because he believes this country must be protected. We all must defend it. We need more Salvinis across Europe,” said Chega’s Ventura.
Receiving loud applause for speaking in Italian, Vox spokesman José Fuster focused on the notion of unity between allies of this new party family—a unity that will change the course of the continent. “European patriots look here, to the fields of Pontida, as a renewed symbol of resistance and hope in the face of fierce enemies,” he said. “We have won, and we will win, but only if we stay united.”
The host of the meeting, Matteo Salvini, said that even if he was convicted, he “would go to prison with [his] head held high.”
“They are prosecuting someone who did his duty, but they cannot stop an entire people, and they cannot stop the Holy Alliance of European peoples, which is being born today in Pontida,” Salvini declared.
