EU centre-right bloc accused of sheltering Hungary’s Orbán

HUNGARY - Europe’s powerful centre-right alliance, the European People’s Party, has been accused of providing political cover for the autocratic rule of Viktor Orbán on the eve of Hungary’s elections. The EPP, a bloc that includes the parties of Angela Merkel and Jean-Claude Juncker, is accused of sheltering Fidesz despite Hungary’s democratic backsliding, hostile stance on migration, misinformation about Brussels and alleged misuse of EU funds. Fidesz and its Christian Democratic ally in Hungary, KDNP, are members of the EPP, which boasts nine heads of EU governments and the largest number of MEPs in the European parliament. Hungary’s former European commissioner László Andor said the EPP had provided “absolutely essential” cover for Orbán, and he highlighted the role of Bavaria’s powerful CSU, the sister party to Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union. “The German CSU has played a pivotal role in whitewashing the autocratic rule of Orbán, and only pushed him back in cases when he was going to the wildest extremes like discussing the need to reintroduce the death penalty.” The CSU’s former minister president of Bavaria, Horst Seehofer, hosted Orbán at a party conference in January, and his colleague Manfred Weber, the EPP leader in the European parliament, praised aspects of the Hungarian prime minister’s migration policy on a recent visit to Budapest. Joseph Daul, the Frenchman who is EPP president, recently tweeted “all the best” to Fidesz and KDNP, adding that Orbán and parties of the right would “continue to bring stability and prosperity to Hungarian citizens”. Critics argue such well-wishing has blunted EU attempts to protect the rule of law in Hungary unlike in Poland, where the governing rightwing party is not part of the EPP. Andor, affiliated to Hungary’s Socialist party, said the EU institutions would have taken stronger action, such as triggering the article 7 process threatening sanctions, had Fidesz not been part of the EPP.

(The Guardian)