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Budapest / Brussels (dpa) - The twelve members of the Hungarian Fidesz party are leaving the parliamentary group of the Christian Democratic European People's Party (EPP) in the European Parliament.

"I hereby inform you that the Fidesz MEPs are ending their membership in the EPP Group," said Hungarian Prime Minister and Fidesz Chairman Viktor Orban in a letter to EPP Group leader Manfred Weber (CSU) on Wednesday.

Fidesz Vice-Chair Katalin Novak published the letter on her Twitter account.

Immediately before that, the EPP Group had voted in an online meeting with the necessary majority for an amendment to the Rules of Procedure that would have made it possible to suspend Fidesz Group's membership in the Group.

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Orban had already threatened in a letter to Weber last Sunday that the Fidesz MPs would be withdrawn from the group if the group should approve the change in the rules of procedure.

With the resignation of the Fidesz MPs, Orban anticipated a vote on the suspension of the Fidesz group, which would probably soon have been put on the agenda.

The end of Fidesz's membership in the EPP parliamentary group marks the end of the year-long dispute between the right-wing nationalist Orban and the European Christian Democrats, to which the CDU and CSU also belong.

At party level, Fidesz's membership in the EPP has been suspended since 2019, among other things because of alleged violations of EU fundamental values ​​and verbal attacks against the then EU Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker.

The Fidesz MPs remained in the group until they left on Wednesday.

The break that has now taken place also means a turning point for EPP parliamentary group leader Weber, who tried to mediate for a long time, but finally got into sharp conflict with Orban.

A change in the Fidesz MPs to the right-wing national EKR or to the even further right-hand group ID in parliament would be conceivable.

Both would strengthen the right.

The EPP would remain the strongest group.

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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210303-99-668418 / 3

Orban letter on Novak's Twitter account, Engl.