Wednesday

31st May 2023

EPP group moves forward to suspend Orban's Fidesz

The centre-right European People's Party (EPP) in the European Parliament will press ahead on Wednesday (3 March) with a vote on new rules for suspending member parties - despite Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orban threat that his Fidesz party will leave the group if the vote takes place.

MEPs are scheduled to vote on Wednesday morning to change the rules of procedure of the parliamentary group to allow the suspension of the activities of a member party.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Hungary's Fidesz has been suspended from its umbrella political family, the EPP, since 2019 - but it has had little effect on the positions of Fidesz's 12 MEPs in the parliamentary group.

One Fidesz MEP, Livia Jaroka, is the vice-president of the parliament, and several others are vice-chairs of different committees.

EPP sources told EUobserver that the move to rewrite internal rules is part of an effort to bring those MEPs' status into line with Fidesz's suspension from the party family.

"We need to ensure cohesion with the party decision-making," one EPP source said.

The change in rules requires a two-thirds majority among the group's 187 MEPs. EPP sources said only the Fidesz delegation spoke out against the new rules at an internal meeting last Friday.

Slovenian MEPs from prime minister Janez Jansa's party, who recently came under criticism for verbal attacks on journalists, might also back their Fidesz colleagues, a source added.

After any such new rules are introduced, MEPs are expected to vote on the suspension of Fidesz MEPs' activities, within a week or two, which will require a simple majority, a source said.

That would mean that Fidesz MEPs could no longer speak or act on behalf of the EPP group, and could no longer represent the EPP group.

Orban, for his part, is no longer invited to EPP party family gatherings since the party's suspension.

The Hungarian prime minister, in a letter on Sunday to group leader German MEP Manfred Weber, said that "if Fidesz is not welcome, we do not feel compelled to stay in the group."

Orban argued that it is "undemocratic to limit the rights of MEPs" and that the move will weaken the EPP political family.

The threat of Fidesz leaving the EPP group - not the EPP political family - did not seem to change the momentum among MEPs. (The EPP political family is larger, and includes member parties from non-EU countries.)

"Many MEPs do not appreciate this communication from Orban with the official prime minister letterhead," another EPP source said.

"The will [to hold the] vote is larger now than the fear of losing MEPs," the source added.

Rewriting the internal rules has been in the making since December, when Fidesz delegation leader, MEP Tamas Deutsch, was suspended after comparing comments made by Weber to slogans of the Nazi Gestapo and Hungary's communist-era secret police.

The EPP, the party and the group itself, has been struggling with how to handle Orban and his ruling Fidesz party, which has challenged EU values and rules and is locked in a dispute with several EU institutions.

"I am a friend of dialogue, but Fidesz has made no move in the past to change. I am not going to let Orban succeed with blackmail again now. The reform will come and have an impact," Austrian MEP Othmar Karas said on Twitter.

Expelling Fidesz from the EPP party family remains a decision of political leaders of the party.

EPP president Donald Tusk has hoped to go ahead with a personal meeting in June to decide on Fidesz's fate - but it might be again postponed due to the pandemic.

New push to kick Orban's party out of centre-right EPP

Member parties from the largest European political family have called for the expulsion of their Hungarian partner - again. This time, two prime ministers joined, but so far the heavyweights have again stayed away.

Analysis

EPP's Orban struggle exposes deeper mainstream dilemma

Europe's largest political alliance was once reformed to dominate EU politics and band together like-minded, but at times, very different parties. Now increasing political fragmentation in Europe seems to pull it apart.

EPP kicks possible Fidesz expulsion further down line

The EU's largest political family decided to continue with the suspension of its Hungarian member, prime minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party. The centre-right group is still divided over Fidesz, and will hold a congress on its vision of the future.

Tusk pledges 'fight' for EU values as new EPP president

The outgoing president of the EU council, Donald Tusk, is set to be elected as the president of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP). Tusk will have to deal with the final decision over Hungary's ruling Fidesz.

Analysis

Relief in EPP group, as Orbán's party finally leaves

The debate over Fidesz had become an unbearable political burden on EPP - but it also represented a core dilemma for many centre-right, mainstream parties struggling to deal with their populist challengers.

Column

What a Spanish novelist can teach us about communality

In a world where cultural clashes and sectarianism seems to be on the increase, Spanish novelist Javier Cercas (b.1962) takes the opposite approach. He cherishes both life in the big city and in the countryside.

Opinion

Poland and Hungary's ugly divorce over Ukraine

What started in 2015 as a 'friends-with-benefits' relationship between Viktor Orbán and Jarosław Kaczyński, for Hungary and Poland, is ending in disgust and enmity — which will not be overcome until both leaders leave.

Latest News

  1. Germany unsure if Orbán fit to be 'EU president'
  2. EU Parliament chief given report on MEP abuse 30 weeks before sanction
  3. EU clashes over protection of workers exposed to asbestos
  4. EU to blacklist nine Russians over jailing of dissident
  5. Russia-Ukraine relations the Year After the war
  6. Why creating a new legal class of 'climate refugees' is a bad idea
  7. Equatorial Guinea: a 'tough nut' for the EU
  8. New EU ethics body and Moldova conference This WEEK

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. InformaConnecting Expert Industry-Leaders, Top Suppliers, and Inquiring Buyers all in one space - visit Battery Show Europe.
  2. EFBWWEFBWW and FIEC do not agree to any exemptions to mandatory prior notifications in construction
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us