Orbán faces backlash after attack on Juncker

A Hungarian government-sponsored attack campaign on European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker backfired as senior officials in the European People’s Party (EPP) rebuked Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Some officials called for an apology while others said that Orbán and his party, Fidesz, should be kicked out of the EPP, the mainstream center-right group that has controlled EU politics for decades.

And Juncker, speaking at an event in Brussels, declared, “Enough is enough.”

This week, the Hungarian government unveiled a taxpayer-financed campaign attacking Juncker, along with the Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros, and accusing officials in Brussels of plotting to impose migration policies that go against Hungary’s interests. In reality, the EU has been paralyzed from adopting any new policies on migration largely because of Orbán’s refusal to agree to any compromise that would take pressure off frontline countries such as Italy.

The chorus of voices speaking out in defense of Juncker suggests that Orbán will face a renewed push to oust him from the EPP.

So far, party chieftains, including the EPP president, Joseph Daul, have protected Orbán, mindful that the 12 seats Fidesz holds in the European Parliament are important for the EPP’s majority and its future election prospects. The EPP also fears Fidesz joining forces with Euroskeptics if it is kicked out of its current home.

“Parts of the speech on the State of the Nation and the poster campaign against Jean-Claude Juncker cause great incomprehension and anger in the EPP,” Manfred Weber, the party’s candidate for Commission president and leader of the group in the European Parliament, told the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung on Thursday.

“I find some of the wording unacceptable. One cannot belong to the EPP and campaign against the current EPP Commission president,” Weber said. “That is not acceptable. I expect the CDU [the German Christian Democrats] and CSU [Christian Social Union] to look into this as well. Viktor Orbán must realize that he is currently moving ever further away from the EPP.”

Weber has been an ally of Orbán in the past, though in the fall Weber voted in favor of a Parliament resolution to open disciplinary proceedings against Hungary for allegedly breaching core EU values. In initiating the so-called Article 7 proceedings, the Parliament cited concerns about judicial independence, corruption, freedom of expression, academic freedom, the rights of minorities and migrants, and other issues.

Orbán, however, has remained defiant in the face of criticism from Brussels, insisting that he is a defender of “illiberal democracy” and “Christian Europe,” and that Hungary will not tolerate being dictated to by Western Europe.”

The Hungarian prime minister’s continued combative rhetoric has presented a growing problem for Weber and the EPP ahead of the European Parliament election. Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans, who is the center-left Party of European Socialists’ candidate for Commission president, has used Orbán to warn that a vote for the EPP and Weber could lead to a governing coalition in the European Parliament that includes far-right forces.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is the most prominent national EPP leader, weighed in on Thursday in defense of the Commission president. “Jean-Claude Juncker has my full solidarity,” she said.

EPP insiders on Thursday said they anticipate a more forceful statement — potentially including a demand for the ouster of Fidesz — by Merkel and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who succeeded Merkel as leader of the CDU, the governing EPP party in Germany.

Several EPP officials said the group has not yet made any decision to expel Fidesz, but said the issue would be discussed at an EPP group meeting next week. Still, an official from the EPP group said: “We have now placed the missile on the launchpad.”

The question of expelling Fidesz has largely been in the hands of Daul, the EPP president who is close to Orbán and previously has sought to rein in the combustible Hungarian. Though many in the EPP share some of Orbán’s positions on migration, they have also been shocked by his disloyalty to the political family and his attacks on Juncker, among the party’s most public figures.

Daul has long said there was never sufficient backing among EPP member parties to expel Fidesz. According to EPP rules, the suspension or exclusion of a member can be made with a vote by “seven ordinary or associated member parties from five different countries.”

In Brussels on Thursday, Gabriele Bischoff, the president of the Workers’ Group in the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), publicly voiced support for Juncker who participated in a panel discussion at the committee’s plenary session.

“I just wanted to assure you we are all appalled about these kinds of messages of spreading hate and that we all together stand here in solidarity and support and we will do the utmost to make sure that this is not possible anymore in any country in Europe,” Bischoff said.

In 2015, Juncker famously greeted Orbán by declaring “Hello, dictator” and slapping him on the cheek. But on Tuesday Juncker called for Orbán to be kicked out of the EPP and on Thursday, in response to Bischoff’s support, referred to Orbán as his “friend” but said there is no place for hate.

“I will convey the message to my good friend Viktor Orbán,” Juncker said, drawing laughs from the audience. “Yeah,” Juncker pushed back on the giggles, “he is a good friend.”

The moderator of the panel, Shada Islam of Friends of Europe, interjected sarcastically, “You keep good company, sir.”

“Yeah,” Juncker replied, “but I am totally unable to hate someone and I am very much surprised if I am seeing these posters now spread around in Hungary full of hatred. But I am not giving in. I am not like that. I want to be exactly the opposite of that. In Europe there is no progress if nations are fighting against each another. There is no progress if there is hatred in the world. We had this in Europe. Enough is enough.”

Orbán and his allies, however, show no sign of retreat.

The Commission and EPP “should be capable of self-criticism,” Orbán’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, told reporters, pointing to Brexit and the migration crisis as failures of the Juncker Commission.

“We have always been loyal to the European People’s Party,” he said, emphasizing that Orbán did not initially support Juncker’s appointment as Commission president and that Juncker has tried to get Fidesz kicked out of the EPP.

The Hungarian government intends to continue its broadside against Juncker, Soros and Brussels. While there are already anti-Juncker posters and videos, Gulyás announced that the government will send a letter to each Hungarian citizen explaining its campaign.

One EPP politician said it appears Orbán is trying to bait the EPP into expelling his party.

“It seems to me that Orbán is really trying hard to provoke EPP to actually get rid of them,” the politician said. “Orbán just doesn’t want to call it quits himself because he needs the ‘final chapter’ to be played publicly so that he can tell his disciples around Europe that ‘see, EPP is actually a force that wants to destroy Europe — they wanted to get rid of us, the saviors of Christian Europe.’”

Some rank-and-file EPP members in the European Parliament expressed outrage at Orbán and deep exasperation.

“The recent actions of Mr. Orbán and his government are crossing new red lines, beyond the ones already crossed,” Swedish MEP Gunnar Hökmark wrote in a letter to Weber. “With an anti-Semitic tone, he is attacking Brussels, the president of the European Commission, our EPP colleague Jean-Claude Juncker and the EU as a whole by portraying them as enemies of the Hungarian people. He neglects that all decisions taken by the EU are part of a process where Hungarian MEPs and the Hungarian government are included. It is populism of the worst kind.”

“I propose that we, as a matter of urgency, address the question of Mr. Orbán and Fidesz at the next group meeting and at an extra meeting with the Bureau of the group already next week,” Hökmark added.

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