‘Welcome to the club:’ Hungary’s Orbán salutes German migration vote

Hungarian right-wing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Thursday expressed his pleasure after a controversial motion on migration reforms passed in the German parliament with votes from the far right.

“Good morning, Germany,” Orbán wrote on X in German. He added in English, “Welcome to the club!”

The Hungarian leader has faced criticism for his hard-line stance on migration, having erected a border fence with Serbia and refused asylum seekers entry.

On Wednesday, the far-right AfD helped to narrowly pass a non-binding five-point plan for a tougher migration policy tabled by the opposition conservatives through the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament.

The move was extremely controversial, marking the first time the AfD have been relied upon to form a majority for a vote in the Bundestag.