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| Manfred Weber, member of Germany’s CSU Party and top candidate of the European Peoples Party EPP for the EU elections, delivers a speech during a campaigning event of the European Parliament elections in Vienna |
Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party no longer supports Manfred Weber, the center-right’s lead candidate, to be the next President of the European Commission, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Monday.
The European Parliament’s main centre-right grouping, the European People’s Party (EPP), suspended Orban’s Fidesz until further notice in March amid concerns that it has violated EU principles on the rule of law.
Orban, a nationalist who has often clashed with the European Union over his anti-immigration campaigns and judicial reforms, has since made overtures towards the European right-wing, distancing himself from the EPP group.
“The Hungarian prime minister is elected by the Hungarian people,” Orban told a news conference with Austrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache.
“Weber has said he does not want to be Commission President with the votes of the Hungarians,” Orban said, saying this precluded any further support for Weber, who is looking to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker after a May European Parliament election.
Orban said Weber’s remarks meant an “insult” to Hungarians, but he did not specify alternative candidates, whom Fidesz might support.
“The person of EU Commission President is of utmost significance,” Orban said. “Looking at the campaigns of the leading candidates, these campaigns have convinced me that none of them are fit for the job of leading the Commission.”
REUTERS
