Hungarian President Viktor Orban reacted to his right-wing party Fidesz being suspended from the main pan-European, center-right European People’s Party (EPP) in a near unanimous vote on Wednesday in Brussels.
The EPP, a centre-right voting group at the European Parliament, voted 190 to 3 to suspend Fiedsz’s voting rights within the group, though the Hungarian party has not been outright excluded from the EPP.
“Left wing, liberal member parties, thirteen in total, came forward with a proposal that Fidesz, our party, be excluded,” said Orban.
“This would have turned the EPP into a narrower, left-leaning organization,” he added. Fiedsz was suspended for what critics describe as anti-immigrant rhetoric, especially after a recent campaign poster featured photos of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros, a regular target of criticism by Fiedsz.