Italy: in Rome, Orban dances between the European right and the extreme right

Text by: Florence La Bruyère

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban takes part in a conference in Rome this Monday, February 3. He will share the rostrum with figures from the identity right, such as the Italian Matteo Salvini and the Frenchwoman Marion Maréchal Le Pen.

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From our special correspondent in Budapest,

Viktor Orban appears alongside the European far right, while continuing to sit with the conservatives of the EPP, the European People's Party. Even though the training of the Hungarian Prime Minister has been temporarily suspended , due to attacks on the rule of law in Hungary, and no longer attends major EPP meetings. By showing his affinity with the far right, does Orban seek the final break with the EPP?

A snub to the EPP

One foot inside, one foot outside: for years, Viktor Orban has been playing a balancing act. He says he wants to remain part of the conservatives of the European People's Party . But he continues to criticize the same EPP, which would have fallen under the influence of the liberals and the European left, and even under that of the billionaire George Soros , the eternal bane of Viktor Orban.

" The EPP is declining, it is losing positions and it is weakening ", said the Budapest strongman recently before announcing " We are going to launch something new in European politics ".

By appearing in Rome with the tenors of the far right, Orban is snubbing the EPP. He shows that he has other potential allies on the European scene. But will the case go until divorce? Not sure that the EPP really wants to exclude the Orban party.

An exclusion would risk radicalizing even more Viktor Orban who is trying for the moment to change the EPP from the inside by advocating a return to what he calls " the true values ​​of Christian democracy ".

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