Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a fierce critic of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door refugee policy, and her ex-mentor Helmut Kohl agreed on Tuesday it was questionable whether Europe could continue to absorb migrants indefinitely, Reuters reported. Orban and Kohl issued a joint statement after the right-wing Hungarian leader paid a rare private visit to the 86-year-old Kohl, architect of Germany's 1990 reunification and a major driver of European integration in the 1990s. Orban's meeting with Kohl, 86, who makes only rare public appearances and is largely wheelchair bound, stoked speculation that it was meant as a snub to Merkel and that Germany's foremost elder statesman disagrees with her course. Trying to play down talk of any such rift, the Kohl-Orban statement said they and Merkel shared the overall objective of alleviating the humanitarian emergency represented by migrants but signalled differences over how to tackle the challenge.
