Orban to skip Salvini's meet

(ANSA) - Budapest, April 4 - Rightist Hungarian Premier Viktor Orban will skip a meeting of European 'sovereigntist' parties called by Euroskeptic and anti-migrant League leader Matteo Salvini in Milan Monday, a source close to the Nepszava newspaper said Thursday.
    Orban, the source said, does not want to break with the European People's Party (EPP), and is hoping to avoid expulsion from it and steer it rightwards after the May European elections.
    Therefore, the source said, he is "not interested" in Salvini's initiative.
    Interior Minister and Deputy Premier Salvini is organising an event in Milan to bring together "all European allies of the League" to "propose a reform to the European Union", he said last month.
    "About 20 movements to propose a new Europe of nations with," Salvini said.
    Among the 'sovereigntist' rightwing nationalist parties invited were Orban's Fidesz, France's National Rally of Marine Le Pen, Germany's AfD, and Poland's Law and Justice party.
    Salvini aims to forge a panEuropean alliance for the European elections at the end of May.
    But Orban's Fidesz is not sending any representative to the Milan gathering, the source said Thursday.