BRUSSELS — Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has not formally requested to affix the right-wing European Parliament group dominated by the Brothers of Italy and Poland’s Legislation & Justice occasion, regardless of having mentioned that he was holding negotiations, in line with a spokesperson.
At a press convention with worldwide media final month, Orbán indicated that he was holding membership talks with the right-wing nationalist European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, in line with a Hungarian authorities web site.
However Michael Strauss, a spokesperson for the ECR, mentioned Friday: “In keeping with my understanding they haven’t requested [to join] as a result of then it might have been on any of our group assembly agendas.”
Orbán’s sizeable delegation of 12 MEPs is presently with no political residence within the European Parliament after preemptively quitting the center-right European Individuals’s Social gathering grouping in 2021 in a rule-of-law dispute.
In keeping with POLITICO’s Ballot of Polls, the ECR’s seat numbers are anticipated to develop after the EU election in June, and including Orbán’s MEPs would make them much more influential. The ECR has languished as a diminished parliamentary drive for the reason that departure of the British Conservatives.
Presently locked in a battle with different EU nations over sending cash to Ukraine, Orbán could have extra energy to form the EU’s agenda when his nation takes over the presidency of the Council of the EU in July this 12 months.
The thorny topic of Orbán’s closeness to Russia and his stance on the invasion of Ukraine divides opinion within the ECR. Some nationwide events within the ECR, corresponding to Spain’s far-right Vox, are considered as favorable to Orbán becoming a member of, whereas extra reasonable members such because the Czechs could be opposed.
ECR spokesperson Strauss mentioned: “On this subject I can solely say what I all the time say, that principally everybody who’s sharing our values as given within the Prague Declaration is invited to use for ECR membership. Then it is going to be the choice of the group as an entire.”
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ELECTION POLL OF POLLS
For extra polling information from throughout Europe go to POLITICO Ballot of Polls.
