Hungary: Orbán opponent admitted to EPP group
The MEPs of Hungarian newcomer party Tisza - including party leader Péter Magyar - have been accepted into the EPP group. The MEPs of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party, on the other hand, are without a group at present. Efforts to include them in the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists group have apparently been unsuccessful to date. Commentators look at how the situation has changed.
A new star is born
This adds to the isolation of the Hungarian governing party, Népszava concurs:
“For the first time, Fidesz is not part of the most influential group when it comes to the election of the Commission President. The Hungarian ruling party has become completely isolated in Europe, while Péter Magyar's two-month-old Tisza party is now among the most important forces. This will be pretty unbearable for our prime minister. Because he will have to look on bitterly as a new Hungarian star takes the European stage.”
Hungarians hungry for an alternative
Gazeta Wyborcza comments:
“Neither Orbán nor his supporters can slow Magyar down. The former Fidesz apparatchik who in March exposed the corruption behind the scenes at the top level of government is still gaining ground. Hungarians seem to be hungry for an alternative to Fidesz, which has now ruled the country for 14 years. According to Hungarian political scientist Gabor Török, within three months Magyar's party has achieved the kind of growth that it took Orbán's party a decade to achieve in the past.”
Not trustworthy
The Tisza leader is not to be trusted, warns the pro-government Magyar Nemzet:
“What we know for sure at this point is that Péter Magyar first ruled out becoming a politician - then he became a politician. After that he declared that he would definitely not become a member of the European Parliament - and then he became one. ... The only question is how long his fellow politicians and the population will continue to place their trust in someone who walks around with a tape recorder in his pocket, secretly records his conversations and frequently reverses his positions.”