Fidesz' membership will not be discussed by the EPP Political Assembly early next week

HUNGARY - In Brief 02 Feb 2020 by Istvan Racz
The European People's Party's Political Assembly, which is to meet on February 3-4, will not discuss Fidesz' membership in the party family. This was made clear by EPP president Donald Tusk at a meeting of the EPP's parliamentary faction on Wednesday. There is no clear majority within the EPP on either side, and so Fidesz will be neither expelled nor its suspension will be discontinued.To a great extent, this subject now seems to be subordinated to the much bigger issue of the EU's 2021-2027 budget. On the latter, an extraordinary EU Council meeting has been set for February 20, at which a political agreement is to be achieved, to avoid major delays in further preparatory work. To reach that agreement, EU decision-makers will need a yes vote from PM Orbán as well, and that would be rather difficult to get in case his party were expelled from the EPP just a few days earlier. So it may seem logical to postpone the decision on Fidesz and make a deal with Mr. Orbán on the budget issue.Mr. Orbán himself will be in Brussels tomorrow, talking to EU Council head Charles Michel and EU Commission president von der Leyen. Both discussions will reportedly focus on the budget issue. A further important meeting to watch is set between Mr. Orbán and German chancellor Merkel for February 10, on which occasion they are quite likely to talk on the Fidesz/EPP issue as well.In recent days, various high-ranking Fidesz members seemed quite unhappy about the EPP's decision to postpone the discussion of the Fidesz subject in the EPP. They all suggested that Fidesz could leave the EPP on the basis of its own decision, and whether or not this will happen soon will depend on PM Orbán's talks wit...

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