AfD chief and Hungary’s Orbán bond over migration in Budapest

Hungary’s Prime Minister Victor Orbán hosted the co-leader of Germany’s AfD party Alice Weidel in Budapest on Wednesday, using the opportunity to issue a joint call for a different European migration policy.

The invitation from Orbán is an unprecedented gesture from a European leader to the far-right AfD, which the continent’s other parties have either shunned or attempted to contain.

In a press conference after their discussion, the two, known for their hardline stance on immigrants and asylum seekers, said they wanted Europe to come up with stricter laws to control immigration.

In her comments, Weidel, AfD’s candidate for chancellor in the upcoming elections, spoke of “uncontrolled migration” that causes “imported crime”.

She heaped praise on Orbán, saying that Hungary was the “bulwark” against illegal migration.

Orbán, for his part, said that all of the AfD’s policies, which include mass deportations and closing Germany’s land borders, benefitted Hungary.

Orbán has long taken a strict approach to migration and been critical of common European-wide policies. In June, Hungary was fined €200 million by the European Court of Justice for failing to comply with Europe-wide policies on handing migrants and asylum seekers at its border.

He has called on the European Union to bolster efforts to stop people at borders and force individuals to make asylum requests before entering the EU.

Weidel takes aim at Brussels

Elsewhere, Weidel called for a comprehensive reform of the EU, demanding that Brussels’ powers be drastically reduced and that decisions be made in national parliaments.

She said that Europe was “leaderless” when it came to US President Donald Trump and his tariff threats on the continent.

“It is important that Europe has someone sitting at the negotiating table. But Europe doesn’t have that because it is a very bureaucratic place, so the US has no one to talk to,” Weidel said in a likely dig at European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who earlier this week vowed the EU would retaliate to Trump’s tariff threats.

Orbán concluded by saying that only Germany and France could save Europe from its “crisis,” adding that “a small country like Hungary cannot do that. If the EU works, Hungary will work too.”

The AfD is currently not part of the right-wing Patriots for Europe group that was founded by Orbán in the European Parliament.

It was previously expelled from the now-dissolved far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) group over the controversial comments from its former leader Maximillian Krah, who told an Italian newspaper that not all Nazi SS members were criminals.

The AfD has been thrust into the international spotlight after Weidel formed an unlikely bond with South African-born tech billionaire Elon Musk, who invited the party leader to an online chat on X and has repeatedly expressed his support for the party.

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The AfD is polling in second place ahead of Germany’s elections scheduled for 23 February. However, all other parties have ruled out entering into a coalition with it.

Weidel said her likely prediction for the election was an “unlawful” coalition between Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens.

She added that Merz would be unable to deliver on key migration policies and that “voters would jump ship and vote for the AfD.”