Prominent national leaders in the European People’s Party (EPP), including Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his Norwegian counterpart Erna Solberg, called Thursday for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party to be expelled from the Continent’s center-right political grouping.
The leaders made their call in a letter, after the Hungarian parliament this week approved a measure to let Orbán’s government rule by decree without any specified end date, due to the coronavirus crisis.
The move came after Fourteen EU members States including France, Germany and Spain said in a declaration Thursday that measures restricting freedoms for the coronavirus emergency should be “proportionate and provisory”, referring to Hungary granting full powers to Premier Viktor Orban.
“We are deeply concerned by the risk of violation of the principles of the rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights deriving from the approval of certain emergency measures,” they said.
In a letter sent to EPP President Donald Tusk, the leaders of a number of EPP member parties with deep roots in our respective countries’ center-right and pro- European political traditions, expressed their deep concern with the political developments in Hungary, in particular the law passed by the Hungarian parliament on March 30th, which allows the Hungarian government to indefinitely extend the country’s state of emergency and allows Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to rule by decree.
“This is a clear violation of the founding principles of liberal democracy and European values. The fight against covid-19 requires extensive measures, however the virus cannot be used as a pretext to extend the state of emergency indefinitely. We fear that Prime Minister Orbán will use his newly achieved power to further extend the government’s grip on civil society. The EPP has a commitment to safeguard liberal democracy, the indisputable right of the individual and the rule of law, which are fundamental principles, upon which not only our political family, but indeed the European Union is founded.”
In their letter the political party leaders said “We have followed the degradation of the Hungarian rule of law for some time. Fidesz is currently suspended from the EPP due to its failure to respect the principle of rule of law. However, the recent developments have confirmed our conviction that Fidesz, with its current policies, cannot enjoy full membership in the EPP.
We wish to express our full support to President Donald Tusk and the entire EPP leadership in upholding the integrity of our political family. We call on the expulsion of Fidesz from the EPP in accordance with article 9 of the EPP statutes. We furthermore underline our support for the European Commission and call on joint action by the Member States to address the situation in Hungary forcefully. We have some very challenging times ahead.
A strong and united Europe, committed to the founding values of freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights and human dignity, is a necessity for us all.” The letter was signed by Joachim Coens CD&V (Belgium), Søren Pape Poulsen Conservative People’s Party (Denmark), Gabrielius Landsbergis Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats, Erna Solberg ,Prime Minister of Norway Conservative Party of Norway, Ulf Kristersson, Moderate Party (Sweden), Maxime Prevot CdH (Belgium), Petteri Orpo National Coalition Party (Finland), Frank Engel CSV (Luxembourg), Miroslav Beblavy SPOLU (Slovakia), Markéta Pekarová Adamová Top 09 (Czechia), Kyriakos Mitsotakis Prime Minister of Greece Nea Demokratia, Rutger Ploum CDA (Netherlands) and Ebba Busch Christian Democrats (Sweden).
POLITICO / EPP
