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Hungary's prime minister will host Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini in a meeting between two of Europe's main opponents to immigration.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Salvini will meet Thursday afternoon at Orban's new office in Buda Castle.

In an interview published Wednesday in Italian newspaper La Stampa, Orban said Salvini was "the most important person in Europe today" on migration, which Orban called "the most important question history has confronted us with."

The membership of Orban's Fidesz party in the European People's Party, the biggest group in the European Parliament, was suspended in March over concerns about the rule of law in Hungary.

Orban has hinted at leaving the People's Party anyway after European Parliament elections at the end of May, another reason for possibly tightening ties with Salvi