Orban’s party suspended from Brussels group

VIKTOR ORBAN’S Rightwing Fidesz party was last night suspended from the European People’s Party (EPP) group amid fears Hungary’s strongman leader was trampling on the rule of law and indulging in gratuitous Brussels-bashing.

The centre-right EPP is the largest group in the European Parliament and counts Angela Merkel, Jeanclaude Juncker and Donald Tusk among its members.

Mr Orbán was present for the day-long discussions over disciplinary measures, which could have included expulsion of Fidesz’s 12 MEPS from the EPP ranks. He told the EPP delegates that his party could not accept a suspension, raising the prospect of his MEPS joining a different, more nationalist and anti-brussels alliance of MEPS after European elections in May.

Mr Orbán’s chief of staff signalled that Fidesz would quit the EPP rather than see its membership suspended, saying it was a question of national “dignity”.

Mr Orbán’s controversial judicial reforms have raised fears over an illiberal drift in Hungary. Manfred Weber, the EPP leader, said: “It was a very hard discussion.” He said Fidesz would be banned from voting on issues, major group meetings and “can no longer propose candidates for posts” in the alliance.

An evaluation commission will now follow developments within the Fidesz party. Mr Juncker and 13 sister parties in the EPP called for Fidesz’s expulsion.

But Annegret Kramp-karrenbauer, head of Germany’s Christian Democrats, and the front-runner to succeed Angela Merkel, backed the suspension and evaluation committee proposal.

Other political alliances in the European Parliament accused the EPP of a fix-up that “shames Europe”.

Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the Alde Liberal group and a target for Mr Orbán’s ire, wrote on Twitter “EPP has lost the moral authority to lead Europe. The conditions agreed to prevent Fidesz’s expulsion have nothing to do with the reality in Hungary today.”

Sources close to Mr Weber said Mr Orbán had at least partially met the German conservative’s conditions for keeping Fidesz in the EPP, by apologising for labelling group colleagues as “useful idiots”.