Volner expelled from Jobbik parliament group

The parliamentary group of conservative opposition Jobbik has expelled János Volner, one of the party’s deputy leaders, from its ranks after he had sent a letter to Jobbik’s grassroots leaders calling for the installation of a new party leadership.

In his letter — a copy of which was published online by business weekly Figyelo on Friday — Volner, referring to Jobbik’s endeavours to turn itself into a “people’s party”, scorned attempts to forge a close alliance with green party LMP.

He also lamented Jobbik‘s “current catastrophic state of affairs” and insisted that members were deserting the party in droves. Volner accused Jobbik’s leader and his deputy of forging an alliance “with NGOs sponsored by speculator George Soros, a freemason” and the leftist opposition Democratic Coalition.

Jobbik’s parliamentary group on Friday convened an extraordinary meeting after which Péter Jakab, one of the party’s MPs, gave a press conference announcing Volner’s expulsion. Jakab also said that István Apáti and Erik Fülöp had decided to quit the parliamentary group over Volner’s expulsion.

Jakab said

Jobbik’s leadership had launched an ethics inquiry into Volner “over his actions in the past three months”, adding that Volner’s letter “was just the straw that broke the camel’s back”.