Renewed calls to expel Fidesz as dominant center-right party confronts intensifying split.
This week, the Hungarian government unveiled a taxpayer-financed campaign attacking Juncker, along with the Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros, and accusing officials in Brussels of plotting to impose migration policies that go against Hungary’s interests. In reality, the EU has been paralyzed from adopting any new policies on migration largely because of Orbán’s refusal to agree to any compromise that would take pressure off frontline countries such as Italy.
The chorus of voices speaking out in defense of Juncker suggests that Orbán will face a renewed push to oust him from the EPP.
The EPP has shown support for Jean-Claude Juncker, which may lead to Viktor Orbán being pushed out | Aris Oikonomou/AFP via Getty Images
So far, party chieftains, including the EPP president, Joseph Daul, have protected Orbán, mindful that the 12 seats Fidesz holds in the European Parliament are important for the EPP’s majority and its future election prospects. The EPP also fears Fidesz joining forces with Euroskeptics if it is kicked out of its current home.
“Parts of the speech on the State of the Nation and the poster campaign against Jean-Claude Juncker cause great incomprehension and anger in the EPP,” Manfred Weber, the party’s candidate for Commission president and leader of the group in the European Parliament, told the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung on Thursday.
“I find some of the wording unacceptable. One cannot belong to the EPP and campaign against the current EPP Commission president,” Weber said. “That is not acceptable. I expect the CDU [the German Christian Democrats] and CSU [Christian Social Union] to look into this as well. Viktor Orbán must realize that he is currently moving ever further away from the EPP.”
Weber has been an ally of Orbán in the past, though in the fall Weber voted in favor of a Parliament resolution to open disciplinary proceedings against Hungary for allegedly breaching core EU values. In initiating the so-called Article 7 proceedings, the Parliament cited concerns about judicial independence, corruption, freedom of expression, academic freedom, the rights of minorities and migrants, and other issues.
Jean-Claude Juncker (right) greets Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (left) at a summit in 2015 | John Thys/AFP via Getty Images
“I will convey the message to my good friend Viktor Orbán,” Juncker said, drawing laughs from the audience. “Yeah,” Juncker pushed back on the giggles, “he is a good friend.”
The moderator of the panel, Shada Islam of Friends of Europe, interjected sarcastically, “You keep good company, sir.”
“Yeah,” Juncker replied, “but I am totally unable to hate someone and I am very much surprised if I am seeing these posters now spread around in Hungary full of hatred. But I am not giving in. I am not like that. I want to be exactly the opposite of that. In Europe there is no progress if nations are fighting against each another. There is no progress if there is hatred in the world. We had this in Europe. Enough is enough.”
Orbán and his allies, however, show no sign of retreat.
The Commission and EPP “should be capable of self-criticism,” Orbán’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, told reporters, pointing to Brexit and the migration crisis as failures of the Juncker Commission.
“The recent actions of Mr. Orbán and his government are crossing new red lines, beyond the ones already crossed” — Swedish MEP Gunnar Hökmark
“We have always been loyal to the European People’s Party,” he said, emphasizing that Orbán did not initially support Juncker’s appointment as Commission president and that Juncker has tried to get Fidesz kicked out of the EPP.
The Hungarian government intends to continue its broadside against Juncker, Soros and Brussels. While there are already anti-Juncker posters and videos, Gulyás announced that the government will send a letter to each Hungarian citizen explaining its campaign.
One EPP politician said it appears Orbán is trying to bait the EPP into expelling his party.
“It seems to me that Orbán is really trying hard to provoke EPP to actually get rid of them,” the politician said. “Orbán just doesn’t want to call it quits himself because he needs the ‘final chapter’ to be played publicly so that he can tell his disciples around Europe that ‘see, EPP is actually a force that wants to destroy Europe — they wanted to get rid of us, the saviors of Christian Europe.’”
Some rank-and-file EPP members in the European Parliament expressed outrage at Orbán and deep exasperation.
“The recent actions of Mr. Orbán and his government are crossing new red lines, beyond the ones already crossed,” Swedish MEP Gunnar Hökmark wrote in a letter to Weber. “With an anti-Semitic tone, he is attacking Brussels, the president of the European Commission, our EPP colleague Jean-Claude Juncker and the EU as a whole by portraying them as enemies of the Hungarian people. He neglects that all decisions taken by the EU are part of a process where Hungarian MEPs and the Hungarian government are included. It is populism of the worst kind.”
“I propose that we, as a matter of urgency, address the question of Mr. Orbán and Fidesz at the next group meeting and at an extra meeting with the Bureau of the group already next week,” Hökmark added.
