EPP has decided, the MEPs of the Tisza Party have been elected, KDNP is leaving – UPDATE

tisza party epp

The European People’s Party has decided, the MEPs of the Tisza Party have been elected, and KDNP has left EPP.

Tisza Party and EPP

The Group of the European People’s Party officially decided on Tuesday to welcome 14 new MEPs, including the elected representatives of the Tisza Party.

Among the newly admitted MEPs are Péter Magyar, Dóra Dávid, Zoltán Tarr, András Tivadar Kulja, Eszter Lakos, Gabriella Gerzsenyi and Kinga Kollár, the EPP website said. In addition to Tisza’s MEPs, the centre-right grouping also voted in favour of admitting seven other MEPs into the group.

The big question was whether Péter Magyar would take up the EP mandate, which he had previously said he would have to think about. Around the election, he indicated that he might, mainly because there were no more names on the party’s list of candidates and he would be forced to go to Brussels. He left it to his supporters to decide in a poll, where he gave several arguments for why he should be an MEP.

The statement stressed that with the decision, these MEPs have joined the EPP Political Group, but their parties have not joined the EPP Party.

The decisions on group membership and party membership are independent of each other. According to the EPP’s statement, the admission of the new members will allow the group to consolidate its position “as by far the strongest political Group in the European Parliament”.

As is known, Manfred Weber held talks with Péter Magyar in Budapest last week, and today, he has already spoken about his support for the inclusion of Tisza Party MEPs in the group. The KDNP, meanwhile, is leaving the People’s Party, while Fidesz, the larger governing party, already did so in March 2021. Since then, the Hungarian government has been harshly critical of EPP politician Von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.

According to the latest update from the European Parliament, the EPP will have 190 MEPs, the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats 136, Renew Europe 80, the European Conservatives and Reformists 76, the Identity and Democracy group 58, the Greens 52 and the Left will have 39 MEPs. There are a total of 89 independent or new MEPs, the latter of whom can still join a party group after the formation of the new EP.

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UPDATE

KDNP to leave EPP

The Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP), Hungary’s junior ruling party, is leaving the European People’s Party and the party family’s group in the European Parliament, in response to the EPP’s decision to admit Péter Magyar, the leader of opposition Respect and Freedom (Tisza) party, into its EP group, KDNP leader Zsolt Semjén and MEP György Hölvényi said on Tuesday.

KDNP to leave EPP

KDNP had stated earlier, after talks with EPP leader Manfred Weber, that they disagreed with the party family’s “pro-war doctrine” and opposed “on moral grounds” the admission of Tisza to the party family or that of its leader, Peter Magyar, to the EPP party group, the statement said. “The EPP has shifted to the left and lost its identity in the process, it is no longer the party created by its Christian Democratic founders… Its pro-war doctrine is diametrically opposed to the pro-peace commitment that was at the root of the European Union,” the statement said.

KDNP will continue to represent the interests of Hungarians and Christian Democracy, and Hölvényi “will continue to fight for persecuted Christians”, the statement said.

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