EPP votes to suspend Hungary's ruling Right-wing Fidesz party
Viktor Orban's Right-wing Fidesz party was on Wednesday suspended from the European People’s Party group amid fears Hungary’s strongman leader was trampling on the rule of law and indulging in gratuitous Brussels-bashing.
Mr Orban, renowned for his anti-EU and anti-migration posturing, was present for the day long discussions over disciplinary measures, which could have included expulsion of Fidesz’ 12 MEPs from the group.
The centre-right EPP is the largest group in the European Parliament and counts Angela Merkel, Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk among its members.
The Hungarian prime minister told the EPP delegates that his party could not accept that suspension, raising the prospect of his MEPs joining a different, more nationalist and anti-Brussels alliance of MEPs after May’s European Parliament elections.
Mr Orban's chief of staff signalled that Fidesz would quit the EPP rather than see its membership suspended, saying it was a question of national "dignity".
Mr Orban has drawn criticism for running a poster campaign targeting Mr Juncker, the president of the European Commission, and Jewish billionaire philanthropist George Soros, which was widely condemned as anti-Semitic.
His highly controversial judicial reforms have raised fears over an illiberal draft in the country.
Manfred Weber, the leader of the EPP in the parliament and a possible successor to Mr Juncker as president of the European Commission, said: "It was a very hard discussion."
Mr Weber, who is German, said Fidesz would be banned from voting on issues, major group meetings and “can no longer propose candidates for posts” in the alliance.
An evaluation commission led by former EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy will now follow developments within the Fidesz party.
The head of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and 13 sister parties in the EPP called for Fidesz's expulsion.
But Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, head of Germany's Christian Democrats, and the frontrunner to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor, backed the suspension and evaluation committee proposal.
Mr Weber’s chances of succeeding Mr Juncker as head of the executive Commission will be reduced without the votes of Fidesz MEPs.
Sources close to Mr Weber said Mr Orban had at least partially met the German conservative's conditions for keeping Fidesz in the EPP, including by apologising to colleagues in the grouping for labelling them immigration-backing "useful idiots".
Other political alliances in the European Parliament accused the EPP of a fix-up that "shames Europe"
Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the Alde Liberal group and a target for Mr Orban's ire tweeted
"EPP have lost the moral authority to lead Europe. The conditions agreed to prevent Fidesz's expulsion have nothing to do with the reality in Hungary today."
