Socialists see waning EPP support for Hungary’s Fidesz

Budapest, April 7 (MTI) – The European community has “had enough” of the Hungarian government and the European People’s Party is “no longer behind” ruling Fidesz, Socialist MEP István Ujhelyi told a press conference on Friday.

Ujhelyi insisted that members of the EPP group had “called on Fidesz to quit the party one after the other”.

Hungary’s recent measures will be on the agenda of the European Parliament on April 26, Ujhelyi noted, adding that the agenda was also supported by EPP. “This is not only a case concerning the CEU [Budapest’s Central European University] or refugees or migrants; it is that the EU can no longer have a head of government dismantling the community from inside and presumably serving external interests,” Ujhelyi insisted.

Meanwhile, the leftist opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) has called on the government to scrap the recently amended higher education law, which critics say is aimed against CEU, before the April 26 EP plenary. MEP Peter Niedermüller said that annulling the law could “somewhat correct the damage” the law has done to Hungary’s reputation.

Opposition Jobbik suggested close ties between financier George Soros and Fidesz, and said that the ruling party had supported CEU with nearly 500 million forints since 2010. Jobbik MP Enikő Hegedűs also suggested that Fidesz officials had studied at that university and demanded that they should “repay all scholarships received from Soros”.

Source: MTI