Hungary’s ruling party may be expelled from EU group over anti-immigration campaign

Justin Huggler

Balazs Csekö

VIKTOR ORBAN, the Hungarian prime minister, faces calls to distance himself from an anti-immigration campaign or see his Fidesz party thrown out of the European Union’s most powerful political grouping today.

The European People’s Party (EPP), a bloc of conservative parties from across the EU, is to meet in Brussels this evening to decide whether to expel Fidesz over campaign posters that attacked Jean-claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission.

Manfred Weber, the German favourite to succeed Mr Juncker, flew into Budapest last week in a bid to shore up an increasingly strained political alliance with Mr Orbán.

As Mr Weber drove into the city, the campaign posters at the heart of the dispute had been papered over so he wouldn’t have to see them – although oddly those facing in the opposite direction were still clearly visible.

They depicted Mr Juncker alongside George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist Mr Orbán has accused without evidence of plotting to flood Europe with refugees, with the slogan: “You have the right to know what Brussels is doing”.

Mr Weber’s itinerary was no less subtle in its staging. As well as talks with Mr Orbán, he visited a university funded by Mr Soros that the Hungarian government has been trying to close down. He also visited Budapest’s main synagogue in what was seen as a rebuke to Fidesz’s anti-semitic rhetoric.

Mr Orbán is becoming a problem for Mr Weber, who is the EPP’S lead candidate in May’s European parliament elections, which the party is favourite to win. If the EU follows the same rules it did last time, that would leave Mr Weber in pole position to succeed Mr Juncker as the head of the Commission.

But Mr Orbán’s attacks on Mr Juncker, a former luminary of the EPP, have left many in the group fuming, and 13 of its 49 parties have demanded Fidesz’s expulsion.

The problem for Mr Weber is the fact that as a head of government, the Hungarian prime minister has a direct say in the identity of the next commission president, and could potentially block his path. The feeling in Budapest and Brussels is that behind the carefully staged choreography, Mr Weber’s visit was about finding a way of keeping Mr Orbán on board.

“If Viktor Orbán doesn’t manage to create trust in coming days among the EPP parties and his critics, then things will be difficult,” Mr Weber told Der Spiegel in an interview at the weekend. Taking down the posters of Mr Juncker, he said, was “a start, but nothing more”.