Freudenstein: Full EPP membership of Fidesz will not be reestablished

Photo: www.facebook.com/OrbánViktor

In a podcast interview with Central European Affairs Roland Freudenstein, the Policy Director of the Wilfried Martens Center for European Studies, talked about Viktor Orbán’s vaccination gamble, why Fidesz will not get back its full EPP membership rights and government spokesman Zoltán Kovács deliberately denying the truth about liberalism and liberal democracy.

He criticized national solo efforts by EU member states in the vaccination procedure and warned that without the EU there would be vaccination wars between countries. Small countries would have no chance negotiating favorable deals with big pharma companies against large member states. That’s a big advantage of the EU.

Viktor Orbán’s Covid vaccination policy is a gamble. Certain governments are deliberately renouncing the safety standards in the EU just to get a big number of vaccines faster. The EU can’t do much about this, but they are gambling with the health of their citizens.

Viktor Orbán, a gambler by nature, is also gambling on his party’s EPP membership. Orbán likes to attack and win.

Fidesz is fighting to remain in the EPP, although its membership is suspended. It cannot participate in meetings; it can’t take part of the process defining the future of the political family. Fidesz leaders are trying to portrait this as a mutual suspension, but the suspension happened against the will of Viktor Orbán. Orbán wasn’t winning at that moment.

Fidesz will not be able to reestablish its full EPP membership rights unless it fundamentally changes its course. Mr Freudenstein doesn’t think this will happen. As an alternative, Fidesz could be joining another political family, which is on the minds of Fidesz leaders. Fidesz could either join Matteo Salvini’s Identity and Democracy or the European Conservatives and Reformists group. The Fidesz plan to create one big, right-wing, anti-migration movement in the EP collapsed after the latest EP election. For the moment, remaining with one foot in the mainstream and flirting with right-wing alternatives at the same time is the best bet Fidesz seems to have.

He rejects the idea of Viktor Orbán applauding Brexit and says that Hungary would be completely stupid to exit the EU.

Mr Freudenstein denies Fidesz claims that liberal democracy equals liberalism as they are two different things. Liberalism is political philosophy and liberal policies are confined to one part of the political spectrum in a democracy. Liberal democracy is a constitutional guarantee of checks and balances, independent institutions, free and pluralistic press, a vibrant civil society, independent courts and institutions.

Hungary’s international spokesman Zoltán Kovács always puts it in a way as if liberal democracy was an electoral system in which liberals always have to win. This attitude is a deliberate reversal of truth. There is no aspect of George Soros financing this idea, there is nothing pro-migratory in liberal democracy. The EPP should reject the totally false representations of reality.