The leader of the EPP Group in the European Parliament and candidate for the presidency of the European Commission, Germany's Manfred Weber, sent a letter to the President of the European People's Party (EPP), Joseph Daul, on 5 March, summarising the conditions he considers necessary for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's Hungarian Fidesz party to remain in the Christian Democratic family.
This letter follows an interview given on the same day to the newspaper Bild in which the EPP Spitzenkandidat asked Viktor Orbán to stop the 'anti-EU' and 'anti-Juncker' campaigns, to apologise to the EPP member parties for some of his remarks and finally to restore the normal functioning of the Central European University in Budapest (see EUROPE 12207).
In this letter, addressed to Joseph Daul, the German explains that he still had “hope for unity " in November at the EPP Congress in Helsinki, when Hungarian Fidesz members supported the resolution on democratic values.
“However, this hope has disappeared due to developments in recent days and weeks”, admits Mr Weber.
The “repeated attacks against EPP leaders, reluctance to resolve open offence proceedings and, in recent days, attacks against other EPP member parties (‘useful idiots’) are seriously undermining the unity of our party”, writes Manfred Weber.
In order to preserve the unity of the EPP, Fidesz must "demonstrate the will to remain a member of the EPP", the MEP further asserts.
The EPP will discuss the decision to exclude or suspend Fidesz on 20 March, ahead of the Spring European Summit. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)