Fidesz joins CoE Conservatives Group ?

Hungary’s Fidesz party group in the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) has joined the European Conservatives Group and Democratic Alliance (EC/DA), the head of the delegation told MTI on Monday.

Speaking over the phone on the sidelines of the first day of a week-long PACE meeting, Zsolt Németh said joining the party group was an important step to right-wing cooperation within the Assembly.

EC/DA is the party of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party, Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party, and Italy’s League and Fratelli d’Italia parties, among others, Németh said.

Meanwhile, Hungary’s other ruling party, the Christian Democrat KDNP, continues to work in EPP-CD, the European People’s Party’s body in PACE, Németh said.

At the same meeting, Németh was elected head of PACE’s political affairs committee.

The position will facilitate Hungary’s work when it takes over the CoE’s presidency on May 21 for six months, Németh said.

The Hungarian presidency will focus on boosting respect for the nations’ cultural, legal and historic traditions, the protection of ethnic minorities, family protection, on strengthening the dialogue between religions, and on meeting the challenges posed by artificial intelligence, cybercrime and climate change, he said.

“The Hungarian presidency will present an opportunity for us to promote our way of thinking and our values on the European stage,” Németh said.

As we wrote before, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Matteo Salvini, the head of Italy’s right-wing ruling party Lega, argued in favour of Europe’s renewal and a renaissance of traditional European values after talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Budapest. Details HERE.

Read alsoPM Orbán to form a new, European-level block with Italians and Poles?