Meloni, Orban have more talks before EU summit

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 1 - Premier Giorgia Meloni and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met again early on Thursday before this week's extraordinary European summit on the EU budget and aid to Ukraine, sources said.
    The two leaders had already met during the night, at the central Brussels hotel where Meloni is staying.
    After the first meeting, Orban said he would act to ensure Ilaria Salis, a 39-year-old Italian elementary school teacher and anti-Fascist activist on trial in Hungary for allegedly attacking two Hungarian neo-Nazis almost a year ago, would get "fair treatment".
    Footage of Salis with her hands and feet chained during a court hearing in Budapest have caused a public outcry in Italy.
    "The only thing I can legitimately to do in the case of Ilaria Salis is to exert influence so that she gets fair treatment," said Orban, adding that the Hungarian judiciary is independent from the executive.
    The Hungarian government has said the measures are "appropriate" to the seriousness of the crime allegedly committed by Salis.
    Meloni is also reportedly acting as an intermediary in efforts to get Orban to drop a veto in the EU granting 50 billion euros in aid to Ukraine.
    Orban, Meloni, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, EU Council President Charles Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz subsequently had a meeting on this issue before the summit, sources said. (ANSA).