Its move is too little, too late
VIKTOR ORBÁN became Hungary’s prime minister in 2010. Concerns about the illiberal conduct of his Fidesz party in power began not long afterwards, with the EU’s then commissioner for fundamental rights questioning its use of EU funds, judicial changes and constitutional reforms. Other European institutions as well as the American government and Amnesty International objected to measures like restrictions on election campaigning in the independent media.
It might therefore be said that no more investigation of his autocratic government is needed in order to reach a judgment on its acceptability. Yet an investigation is what the European People’s Party , the grouping of centre-right political parties in the EU that includes Fidesz, today agreed to commission.
This move is just the latest in a series of inadequate responses by the EPP and particularly the CDU/CSU, its most powerful force. Manfred Weber, the CSU MEP selected in the autumn as the EPP’s “Spitzenkandidat” or lead candidate for the European Commission presidency in May’s elections to the European Parliament, has long hugged Mr Orban close.
The suspension of Fidesz is at least, finally, a concrete step. But it is still pathetically weak. Fidesz MEPs may continue to sit with the EPP in the European Parliament.
Moreover, the decision to suspend rather than expel Fidesz could yet give Mr Orban the last laugh. At a press conference afterwards he gloated that his party had volunteered its own suspension and characterised the move as a mere piece of political theatre designed to sooth the sensibilities of the EPP’s more liberal-minded members . He emphasised that Fidesz would continue to campaign for Mr Weber as Spitzenkandidat.
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