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The Hungarian ruling party Fidesz was suspended until the next notification of the main pan-European center-right party. What about Prime Minister Viktor Orban and what are the implications for the most influential political group of the EU?
On Wednesday, a spokesman for the European People's Party (EPP) said that 190 party members had voted in favor of the suspension of the Fidesz party, with only three votes against, following reports of lengthy talks. and often animated with Orban at a meeting in Brussels.
Fidesz was expelled from the EPP after running a controversial advertising campaign accusing European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and US Liberal billionaire George Soros of plotting to overwhelm Europe with migrants.
The campaign has since been abandoned and Orban apologized for insulting EPP partners – the Conservative group of the largest number of MPs – although party leaders warned that this was not enough.
A statement said the suspension was a joint decision by Fidesz and the EPP in a last minute reformulation aimed at preventing Orban from slamming the group door forever.
"We hung up"
Sanctioning Orban split the EPP, fearing that the Hungarian leader would badociate Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-immigrant Italian Northern League, to create a rival group in the European Parliament.
In the face of the difficult European elections in May, some EPP members also fear that punishing Orban will cost them the support of anti-immigrant voters who support Orban's hard line.
But others believe that Orban crosses a dangerous border between xenophobia, anti-Semitism and racism, which is not appropriate for the EPP group.
At a press conference after the EPP's decision, Mr. Orban said that it was "not possible to expel or suspend us, we won four elections, we so we decided to suspend ourselves unilaterally. "
The sanction against Orban does not have an end date, but party sources said the older party members would rate the situation and recommend next steps "probably in the fall."
& # 39; Exclusion on the table & # 39;
"The exclusion is not off the table, she is on the table," said Manfred Weber, of the EPP, who will lead the party in the May vote.
The EPP brings together the main center-right parties of the EU, such as the CDU of German Chancellor Angela Merkel or the Republicans in France, the party of former French leaders Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac.
In an interview Wednesday, Juncker, who won the post of EU Prime Minister for the EPP in 2014, once again asked that Fidesz be excluded.
"For years now (the Orban party) has been moving away from Christian Democratic values," Juncker told German radio Deutschlandfunk. So "his place is outside the EPP".
Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the liberal ALDE group in the European Parliament, said that the compromise agreement between the EPP and Fidesz, which avoided the overthrow of the ruling Hungarian party, was a "political trick".
"The EPP has lost the moral authority to lead Europe," added Verhofstadt.
Elections to the European Parliament will be held throughout the bloc from 23 to 26 May.
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