Viktor Orbán, Hungary's rightist Prime minister awarded Italy's deputy PM Matteo Salvini with a medal of honor for what he called defending traditional Christian values and fighting migration.
Orbán presented a bronze statue and a certificate to Salvini at the Hunyadi János Award ceremony in Brussels on Wednesday.
The international award of the Hungarian Foundation for a Civic Hungary was founded in 2023, when it was awarded to former Member of the European Parliament Professor Ryszard Legutko.
Orbán said the prize was awarded for Salvini's "unwavering defence of Europe," as he "fought courageously against the invasion of illegal migrants by sea."
In his speech at the ceremony, the Hungarian prime minister also took the time to applaud the United States administrations' migration policy.
"The Union cannot be a financial network designed to weaken national governments. The same cleaning that our American friends are doing in Washington is something we will need here in Brussels."
Matteo Salvini is the leader of Italy's far-right, anti-migration Lega party. During his acceptance speech, he denounced the EU Commission's €800 billion defence plan and called on the EU to take concrete action to ensure peace.
"In these offices in Brussels, there are some people, who are speaking about the war, who are preparing the war, they are talking about the armies. I dont think that the future of Europe is WW3. Here there are people who want peace. Peace, work, serenity, and wellbeing," Salvini said.
Salvini has previously been accused of migrant kidnapping over his refusal to let a migrant rescue boat dock in Italy in 2019. The Italian court acquitted him last year.
