For a long time, the majority of the caciques of the European People’s Party (EPP), which brings together the major conservative parties, such as LR and the CDU, had postponed the deadline. But the incessant attacks by Prime Minister Viktor Orban against human rights, those of the press or against the independence of the judiciary in his country, as well as those against a European Union, which nonetheless floods Hungary with subsidies, have got the better of the patience – and interests – of the largest group in the European Parliament.
On Wednesday, the elected representatives of the EPP therefore voted by 148 votes, against 28 and 4 abstentions, a modification of the statutes, allowing the exclusion of entire delegations, and no longer just of individual parliamentarians. An anti-Orban weapon, proclaimed his followers. “An undemocratic, unjust and unacceptable step”, denounced in reaction the Hungarian Prime Minister, announcing, in the tread, that “the members of Fidesz are withdrawing from the PPE group with immediate effect”.
“This departure saddens us. A political family must be able to bring to life different sensibilities and internal debates, without this turning into a tragedy. A departure is always a defeat, ”comments LR MEP Geoffroy Didier.
And this defeat in terms of ideas could also mean a setback for the EPP in Parliament. The best represented group in the hemicycle loses 12 Hungarian elected representatives out of its 187 members. But, within the party, some speculate on another imminent departure: that of the four Slovenian deputies of Prime Minister Janez Jansa. “It is called mini-Orban, but in fact it is worse”, comments a shrewd observer of the EPP. There could be added two deputies belonging to the Hungarian minority in Romania.
Where are these deputies going to go? Several sources see them joining the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, founded in 2009 by future British Brexiters, and which today brings together 62 anti-federalist and nationalist deputies, including those of the influential Polish Catholic Law and Justice party. traditionalist Jaroslaw Kaczynski. “But it would not be very rewarding to become a minority ally of Kaczynski”, tempers an elected official.
A transfer to Identity and Democracy – 77 elected–, where is Marine Le Pen’s RN headquartered? “Complicated”, remarks our deputy, especially since ID is perhaps also experiencing its own upheaval, since the Italian League, which is refocusing on its origins as a party of pro-German industrialists from the north of La Botte, would seek to get closer … to the EPP.
Years of procrastination over “the Orban case” have created differences within the EPP and in particular attacked the elected Nordic and Benelux, less inclined to indulgence vis-à-vis the Hungarian leader than their partners, particularly Germans. These could remain, even if the party of European conservatives remains the most influential in the European Parliament, the only body of the EU directly elected by universal suffrage, even if it is weakening numerically. Within the party, a good connoisseur of the arcane delivers this analysis: “The purpose of the vote was not to know who stays or who goes, but to work to rebuild our identity. ”
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