Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If there are any, I shudder to think of some of the more extreme opinions they may have.

Anyway, I do not agree with Viktor Orbán on these points. I do not agree with him on migration, civil rights or academic freedom. On the one occasion we had a bilateral meeting in Budapest – the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy McEntee, was there – we had a very robust discussion on those matters. It is an active debate within the European People's Party group as to whether that party should stay in the EPP. There is a view from some that keeping the party in moderates it. This has allowed the Central European University to stay in Budapest, for example. Quite a number of others take a different view that Fidesz no longer has a place in the EPP.

Reference was made to reflecting and understanding people's views. I am not so much interested in the views of politicians but I am interested in the views of people who vote for politicians. I often wonder why Hungarian people or people in eastern European countries vote for the politicians they do. I often wonder why people vote for Trump, why people voted for Brexit and why people voted for populist parties of the left, like Syriza, in Greece, or populist parties of the right throughout western Europe. Genuine people, real people, have real concerns. People have concerns about globalisation and migration. They have concerns about inequality of economic opportunity. I believe it is wrong for us to dismiss people's concerns. Dismissing concerns or treating people who vote in a certain way with disrespect – we have seen that from people so many times - is the wrong approach.

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