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FM Szijjártó Blasts Weber for ‘Prioritising Fidesz’s Removal Over Pandemic Response’

MTI-Hungary Today 2021.03.04.

Manfred Weber, the group leader of the conservative European People’s Party, “should be ashamed” for “organising the removal” of Fidesz from the European Parliamentary group instead of focusing on managing the coronavirus pandemic, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Thursday.

MEPs of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party on Wednesday announced that they would leave the EPP group with immediate effect after the group approved an amendment to its statues.

Fidesz MEPs Leave EPP Group Following New Ruling on Party Suspensions
Fidesz MEPs Leave EPP Group Following New Ruling on Party Suspensions

After the European People’s Party passed its vote allowing for the suspension of its member parties, Viktor Orbán sent a letter to EPP Group President Manfred Weber declaring the immediate resignation of all Fidesz representatives from the party’s faction in the European Parliament. The new ruling, passed 148 to 28, allows for the removal of […]Continue reading

Szijjártó said on Facebook that it was time to ask “just how many hours” Weber had spent procuring vaccines “or anything else needed to protect the lives, health and jobs of the European people”.

“Thousands of people are dying in Europe on a daily basis and tens of thousands are getting infected because of the coronavirus pandemic,” Szijjártó said. “The European people need vaccines and ventilators because these are what save lives.”

Fidesz Drifting Away from European Values, or EPP from Conservative Values? - Reactions on Fidesz MEPs Leaving EPP Group
Fidesz Drifting Away from European Values, or EPP from Conservative Values? - Reactions on Fidesz MEPs Leaving EPP Group

Following years of conflict, originating from debates on the European values as well as personal conflicts, Hungary’s governing party has decided to leave the European People’s Party’s (EPP) EP group. Overall, the domestic opposition’s reactions predict Fidesz will drift further away from Europe, while apparently many even within the EPP are happy about Fidesz’s departure. […]Continue reading

Yet, he added, Weber had been busy “organising the removal of the most successful member party of the EPP and thinking up bureaucratic tricks needed to achieve this”.

Manfred Weber should be ashamed of himself. It is a good thing that we are no longer part of a parliamentary group led by someone like him.”

The EPP group voted on Wednesday to change the group’s statutes to make it possible to suspend the membership of a whole group, not just individual MEP members, or to terminate membership collectively if the party group’s rules were seriously breached.

Featured photo illustration by Mátyás Borsos/Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade


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