Last week, the European People's Party (EPP) suspended Viktor Orban's Fidesz party. Now Hungarian Prime Minister Orban is attacking the EPP again. He called on the Hungarians to support his party in the European elections in May so that "left-wing" parties would not decide on Hungary and Europe.
"The Brussels politicians live in a bubble," Orban said on state radio. "They form a Brussels bureaucratic elite that has lost touch with reality."
The EPP, which also includes the CDU and CSU, suspended the membership of the Orban party last Wednesday. It wants to see if its policies and those of its chairman, Orban, are still compatible with the European and democratic values of the EPP.
The decision will take immediate effect, the head of the conservative party family, Joseph Daul, had communicated. 190 members voted in favor of this move, three against. The suspension means: no participation in EPP meetings, no voting rights, no opportunity to propose candidates for office (read an analysis of the suspension here).
Request to support Fidesz party in the European elections
Orban invited his audience to vote for his party in the European elections in May to "show the people of Brussels that what Hungarians want is happening in Hungary." It is unacceptable that "left-drifting and retreating parties" in Brussels decide what happens in Hungary and in Europe.
Great displeasure had recently a poster campaign aroused, which showed the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in a disparaging photo montage with the US investor George Soros. Attached texts mandated the two to promote illegal migration to Europe.
Orban has meanwhile removed the posters that had previously been posted throughout Hungary. The EPP had also asked him to stop campaigning against the EU, and in particular against the EPP. However, the attack on "left-wing parties" is likely to target the EPP. Orban-controlled media repeatedly blame its own party family for serving the Left and Liberals in Europe.