PN votes to suspend Orban’s Fidesz from European People’s Party

The Nationalist Party voted for a motion to suspend Hungary’s centre-right governing party Fidesz from the European People’s Party.

The motion at the EPP congress was approved by 190 votes in favour and three against.

In a statement, the PN said it supported the motion because Fidesz, led by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, had taken decisions deemed to be inconsistent with the beliefs of the EPP.

Orbán has been somewhat of an enfant terrible within the EPP, espousing strong anti-EU rhetoric with legal changes in Hungary that were considered to be an erosion of the rule of law.

Over recent months, Orbán also cosied up to Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini and his anti-immigrant Northern League party in what has been deemed as a new axis of pan-European cooperation.

The PN said that until Orbán changed his attitude and withdrew the offensive decisions, Fidesz’s place was not inside the EPP. “The PN hopes that Fidesz changes its course as quickly as possible.”

The PN was represented at the EPP assembly in Brussels by international secretary Roselyn Borg Knight and MEPs David Casa, Roberta Metsola and Francis Zammit Dimech.

PN leader Adrian Delia is expected in Brussels on Thursday for the EPP leaders’ summit that will discuss Brexit.