European People's Party: It's time for Orbán to go

The European People's Party (EPP) published an interesting post on Facebook on Monday evening, with a picture of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán walking out of a red background, with the caption "Time to go." The description they included really leaves no doubt as to what they are referring to. It says: ‘It’s time to bring Hungary back closer to Europe and give it a chance to recover from the consequences of poor leadership.’

The EPP first posted this picture on X last Wednesday, the day that Viktor Orbán – for the first time after a long while – addressed the European Parliament's plenary session. It was also the first time that he had a face to face confrontation with Péter Magyar. Lőrinc Nacsa, MP of Fidesz's coalition partner KDNP, commented on the Facebook post saying that they are aware that the EPP is planning to interfere in the Hungarian elections, but as far as he was aware, it is not up to them to decide who will lead the country, but to the Hungarian people.

"In Péter Magyar, you are supporting a man who is being accused of stealing a phone, who secretly recorded what his wife was saying so that he could later use it for his own purposes, and who is quoting Hit*er."

– Nacsa wrote, referring to Magyar's recent parallel between Hitler and the Hungarian public media during a demonstration in front of its headquarters.

Nacsa is probably right about the EPP having gone a bit too far, however, it is worth mentioning that the Fidesz-KDNP coalition only criticises alleged or real interference in domestic affairs if it occurs in Hungary. Meanwhile, they have no problem providing financing to a number of foreign politicians. Additionally, Lőrinc Nacsa himself was banned from Ukraine a few years ago because the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry likely interpreted his campaign video as an attempt by the Hungarian politician to interfere in Ukraine's internal affairs.

Nevertheless, the EPP's post, which is no doubt a reflection on last Wednesday's plenary debate, certainly demonstrates the major turnaround in the EPP's relations with Fidesz, which was once among its ranks. It was evident as early as 2020 that many in the EPP did not like what Fidesz was doing, but there was no decision taken at the time about them leaving the party family. However, Manfred Weber did say that if there was no pandemic going on, Fidesz would have been expelled.

Fidesz finally left the EPP group and the party family in March 2021, while their coalition partner KDNP remained, despite the fact that Tamás Menczer, Fidesz-KDNP's communications director called the EPP pro-war and leftist in May. The turning point, however, came this summer, when, following the EP elections, Péter Magyar’s Tisza Party was admitted to the EPP's group at the European Parliament. This resulted in the KDNP officially breaking with the EPP, while Fidesz founded the Patriots for Europe group, which was immediately placed in quarantine in the EP.