Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party will not join a eurosceptic alliance spearheaded by Italy.
In the run-up to European Parliament elections in May, Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party will not join a eurosceptic alliance spearheaded by Italy. The news was confirmed by a government official on January 30.
As reported by the Reuters news agency, the confirmation puts to rest reports earlier this month Italy and Poland were to join forces to reshape Europe, trying to drum up support for a eurosceptic alliance ahead of European Parliament elections in May.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had given his support to the initiative, saying he wanted anti-immigration parties to gain a majority at the vote. But a senior aide told Reuters that Fidesz would work on bolstering the poll showing of Hungarian candidates for the European People’s Party.
“There is no hidden agenda here. The only thing is that these two politicians Mr. Salvini and Mr. Orbán have a very similar if not identical approach on how we should tackle the migration challenge,” state secretary Szabolcs Takacs said.
He said to his knowledge, no meeting was planned between Salvini and Orbán, two hard-liners against mass immigration into Europe, in the foreseeable future.
“Both PiS in Poland and the League in Italy are not EPP members, whereas Fidesz is a member of the EPP. This very clearly defines our place and our position,” Takacs said. “Hungary is not participating in this cooperation in the European Parliament campaign.”
“What we would like to see is that the EPP remains where it should be remaining, the original values, ideas, Christian democracy.”
Takacs also said Hungary firmly backed Manfred Weber’s candidacy to be the next European Commission President.
