STRASBOURG: EU lawmakers on Tuesday narrowly rejected Hungary’s request to strip left-wing Italian lawmaker Ilaria Salis of her parliamentary immunity for alleged violence at a neo-Nazi rally in Budapest.
The European Parliament in Strasbourg backed the anti-fascist activist — who has become a high-profile foe of Hungary’s nationalist government — by 306 votes to 305 in a secret ballot.
“This vote is a victory for democracy, rule of law, and antifascism,” Salis said in a statement.
Salis, 41, was arrested with other activists in Budapest in February 2023 while taking part in a protest against an annual commemoration by neo-Nazis.
She was released from detention after more than a year, following her election to the EU parliament with a small leftist party in 2024.
Hungarian prosecutors requested an 11-year prison sentence and the case made international headlines when Salis appeared in a Budapest court with her feet shackled.
Salis has requested to be tried in Italy.
Italian lawmaker wanted by Hungary clings to EU immunity
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Italian lawmaker wanted by Hungary clings to EU immunity
- The European Parliament in Strasbourg backed the anti-fascist activist by 306 votes to 305 in a secret ballot
- Salis was arrested with other activists in Budapest in February 2023
UK to cut protections for refugees under asylum ‘overhaul’
- PM Starmer announced the cuts amid mounting pressure in the face of soaring support for the hard right
- More than 39,000 people, many fleeing conflict, have arrived this year in the UK
LONDON: Britain will drastically reduce protections for refugees under plans to overhaul its asylum system, the Labour government said on Saturday.
The measures were announced as Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces mounting pressure over irregular migration in the face of soaring support for the hard right.
“I’ll end UK’s golden ticket for asylum seekers,” interior minister Shabana Mahmood declared in a statement.
Presently, those given refugee status have it for five years, after which they can apply for indefinite leave to remain and eventually citizenship.
But Mahmood’s ministry, known as the Home Office, said it would cut the length of refugee status to 30 months.
That protection will be “regularly reviewed” and refugees will be forced to return to their home countries once they are deemed safe, it added.
The ministry also said that it intended to make those refugees who are granted asylum wait 20 years before applying to be allowed to live in the UK long-term, instead of the current five.
The Home Office called the proposals the “largest overhaul of asylum policy in modern times.”
Starmer, elected last summer, is under pressure to stop migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats from France, something that also troubled his Conservative predecessors.
More than 39,000 people, many fleeing conflict, have arrived this year following such dangerous journeys — more than for the whole of 2024 but lower than the record set in 2022.
The crossings are helping fuel the popularity of Reform, led by firebrand Nigel Farage, which has led Labour by double-digit margins in opinion polls for most of this year.
Asylum claims in Britain are at a record high, with some 111,000 applications made in the year to June 2025, according to official figures.
