Hungary: Fidesz announces that it is leaving the group of the European People's Party

(illustration) Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Parliament, Budapest, March 30, 2020 © Zoltan Mathe / MTI via AP

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4 min

Does the formation of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban want to go it alone in Europe or forge an alliance with the European far-right by joining the group of ID identitarians?

Hungary announces on Wednesday that Fidesz, Vikor Orban's party, is leaving the group of the European People's Party, the most important political group in the European Parliament. 

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The departure of the Hungarian party comes as EPP MEPs voted on Wednesday morning to reform their party's status.

The group, which constitutes the first political family of the EU, adopted a modification of its internal rules which allows the suspension or exclusion of entire delegations, and no longer just of individual parliamentarians.

This reform was approved by 148 votes to 28 and 4 abstentions, indicates the official vote count, reported by Agence France Presse.

" 

I inform you that the members of Fidesz are withdrawing from the PPE group 

" with "immediate effect", writes

Viktor Orban

 in a letter posted on Twitter by one of his ministers, denouncing a "

hostile

 "

approach 

aimed " 

clearly 

" at his party.

“ 

It is completely disappointing that the EPP group is trying to silence our democratically elected MEPs

 ,” adds the Hungarian head of government.

Twelve Fidesz members are affected by this withdrawal from Budapest.

A thirteenth Hungarian MP, also a member of the EPP, but not of Fidesz, has decided to stay, which allows the group to continue to count Hungary among the member countries.

The EPP will have to meet later to decide on the exclusion of Fidesz.

An exclusion demanded by several small parties and which would put an end to the tensions caused for several years by the anti-European positions taken by Viktor Orban and measures often considered to be in contradiction with the fundamental rights defended by the European institutions.

In

March 2019 already

, Fidesz was suspended EPP after his blunders against Brussels or on the migration issue.

More recently, MEPs expressed their annoyance when Budapest and Warsaw threatened to block the European recovery plan because of their opposition to the mechanism allowing the suspension of European funds in the event of a breach of the rule of law. 

►

To read also

: MEPs raised against the blackmail of Hungary and Poland on the recovery plan 

"

 The departure of Fidesz is a danger

" for Geoffroy Didier 

But this departure of the EPP from the Hungarian formation is not good news according to the LR / PPE MEP Geoffroy Didier, contacted by phone by

Vincent Souriau

, of the international service of RFI.

“ 

There was a heated debate within the EPP on whether or not to keep Fidesz.

I have always been against their exclusion, because a political family must be able to carry sensitivities, even very different ones.

And that, if there is to be a debate, it is always better that it take place inside, rather than seeing a piece of another political formation leave us.

I believe that Fidesz's departure is a danger.

From now on, unfortunately, Fidesz will no longer be accountable to anyone.

It would be quite regrettable for Fidesz to join ID [Identity and Democracy] because the values ​​carried by ID are radically different from those of the EPP

 ”.

The ID, Identity and Democracy group, on the far right of the political spectrum, currently includes in particular the French deputies of the National Rally and those of the League of Matteo Salvini and the German Afd. 

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