“According to Hungary, people must be given help and encouragement to enable them to remain at home, while according to Italy and others they should be encouraged to come to Europe”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared in an interview aired on Italian RAI public television on Friday evening.

With relation to earlier disputes on migration with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Mr. Szijjártó declared that illegal immigration poses an extremely serious challenge to Europe.

“The Hungarian Government’s standpoint is that people must be given help and encouragement to enable them to remain at home, but Italy, together with other countries, believe they must be encouraged to come to Europe”, he added.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister characterised the differences of opinion as a lively debate, adding that this was “not a tragedy”. He also noted that with annual trade flow of 8 billon euros and 900 Italian companies operating in Hungary, Italy is one of Hungary’s important trade partners.

On the subject of the result of the U.S. presidential election, Mr. Szijjártó said that almost everyone in Europe wanted Hillary Clinton to win and didn’t understand what was happening in the United States, stressing that he hoped that the election of Donald Trump would be followed by positive changes and that in his opinion there would be not be any kind of upheaval.

In the Vatican, Mr. Szijjártó held talks with the Holy See’s Secretary of State, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme Ertharin Cousin and Chairman of the Italian Senate’s Foreign Policy Commission Pier Ferdinando Casini. The Hungarian Foreign Minister announced that in January he would be meeting with his Italian counterpart, Minister of Foreign Affairs Paolo Gentilioni.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)