BRUSSELS — Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has not officially asked to join the right-wing European Parliament group dominated by the Brothers of Italy and Poland’s Law & Justice party, despite having said that he was holding negotiations, according to a spokesperson.
At a press conference with international media last month, Orbán indicated that he was holding membership talks with the right-wing nationalist European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, according to a Hungarian government website.
But Michael Strauss, a spokesperson for the ECR, said Friday: “According to my understanding they have not asked [to join] because then it would have been on any of our group meeting agendas.”
Orbán’s sizeable delegation of 12 MEPs is currently without a political home in the European Parliament after preemptively quitting the center-right European People’s Party grouping in 2021 in a rule-of-law dispute.
According to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls, the ECR’s seat numbers are expected to grow after the EU election in June, and adding Orbán’s MEPs would make them even more influential. The ECR has languished as a diminished parliamentary force since the departure of the British Conservatives.
Currently locked in a battle with other EU countries over sending money to Ukraine, Orbán will have more power to shape the EU’s agenda when his country takes over the presidency of the Council of the EU in July this year.
The thorny subject of Orbán’s closeness to Russia and his stance on the invasion of Ukraine divides opinion in the ECR. Some national parties in the ECR, such as Spain’s far-right Vox, are viewed as favorable to Orbán joining, whereas more moderate members such as the Czechs would be opposed.
ECR spokesperson Strauss said: “On this topic I can only say what I always say, that basically everyone who is sharing our values as given in the Prague Declaration is invited to apply for ECR membership. Then it will be the decision of the group as a whole.”
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ELECTION POLL OF POLLS
For more polling data from across Europe visit POLITICO Poll of Polls.
