Thousands of protesters gather for EU's 'anti-migrant Glastonbury' as they cheer for Geert Wilders and Viktor Orban
The right-wing trio vowed to "never hand our countries over to foreigners"
GETTY
Thousands of anti-immigration protesters descended on northern Italy over the weekend for a mass right-wing rally dubbed the "anti-migrant Glastonbury".
Some of Europe's hard-right governmental hardliners - including Dutch Freedom Party chief Geert Wilders, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban and high-ranking politicians from Austria and Portugal - joined Italian deputy PM Matteo Salvini for the rally in Pontida, on the southern edge of the Alps.
Crowds listened in as the leaders discussed illegal migration in Europe - with Orban vowing to "never hand our countries over to foreigners".
Wilders, whose party have formed a government in the Netherlands for the first time this year, drew attention to what he called a "tsunami of mass illegal migration making us strangers in our own land".
Europe's hard-right firebrands joined forces on stage for Matteo Salvini's rally
GETTY
The pair both heaped praise on Salvini, who leads Italy's Lega (League) party, the successor to the infamous Lega Nord (Northern League) - Orban hailed him as a "hero", while Wilders, addressing the Italian, sensationally declared: "I love you".
Salvini had seen his support collapse in Italy's election in 2022 when fellow right-wing leader Giorgia Meloni - from the Brothers of Italy party - was elected as the country's prime minister.
But Salvini, 51, has surged back to popularity thanks to a Sicilian court's attempt to jail him for six years in September for his decision to prevent a ship laden with over 100 migrants from landing in Lampedusa, a small island which sits between Italy and Tunisia in the Mediterranean.
Ahead of his next hearing on October 18, Salvini told his followers in Pontida: "I would go to jail with my head held high - they can arrest one person but they cannot arrest a whole people!"
MORE ON WILDERS, ORBAN AND SALVINI:
Geert Wilders (right) told Salvini he loved him on-stage
GETTY
Despite only half of the 25,000 expected attendees travelling to Pontida, spirits were high at the "anti-migrant Glastonbury" in a year which has seen marked successes for the Right in Europe.
Marlene Swazek, vice-president of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) which surged to victory just days ago, was also on stage - and she promised to make her country a "fortress".
While 29-year-old French firebrand Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally, spoke at the event via a video link.
Bardella offered Salvini support against judicial "persecution", while Petr Macinka, a Czech populist, told the Italian: "You are the only one in Europe who dared to say no!"
Geert Wilders drew attention to what he called a "tsunami of mass illegal migration making us strangers in our own land"
REUTERS
Italian deputy PM Salvini and Hungarian PM Orban addressed a crowd of thousands at Pontida
REUTERS
Though Salvini will doubtless see the landmark gathering of nationalists as a personal victory, his followers in the League - historically focused on securing independence for Italy's richer northern regions from the poorer south - weren't so sure.
Matteo Rigamonti, the former mayor of a community near Brianza - a few miles from Pontida - said: "Our battle cry is regional autonomy, and many League members are suspicious of this talk of nationalism, which is the opposite and risks suffocating our regional identity."
Another party activist put cutting migration behind regional autonomy and tax cuts - but added: "I do however believe that Arabs and Muslims want to kill our culture."
Though youngsters at the event, speaking to The Times, placed their priorities the other way around.
Luigi, 15, told the newspaper: "We must defend our borders... The problem is the station at Bergamo, which is full of migrants."
You may like
