18/01/2021 (Agence Europe) – On Saturday 16 January, during the German Christian Democratic Party congress, Donald Tusk, the president of the European People’s Party (EPP), asked the CDU to take “a clear position” with regard to the membership of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party in the European Christian Democratic family. It is “largely” due to the CDU that freedom and truth have prevailed in Europe over “authoritarian tendencies, corruption, lies and populism”, he noted. In response to questions from German TV channel ZDF, Armin Laschet, the new leader of the CDU, called it “a difficult question” and noted that the EPP expected Fidesz to respect the clear conditions for membership of the European party. Fidesz is currently suspended from the EPP. In December 2020, Orbán suggested a new form of collaboration to the European party (see EUROPE 12618/33). (MB)