Echoing other delegations’ concerns, Romania’s rising far-right party AUR has expressed they will backtrack on their decision to join the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European Parliament if Hungarian ruling party Fidesz joins.
Such a decision would be a major U-turn in AUR’s plans, which, projected to score seven seats after the EU elections in June, sought to join like-minded ‘Euro-realist’ parties in the ECR group, the party President, George Simion, told Euractiv in June.
“Giorgia Meloni is a political model for us,” Simion stressed, as the Italian Prime Minister party, Fratelli d’Italia, leads the ECR group.
Founded in 2019 and currently Romania’s second political force with 20% votes in polls, AUR is set to enter the Parliament for the first time, potentially becoming one of the biggest national delegations in the conservatives’ group.
Following a heavy flirting between the ECR group and Hungary’s ruling party, Fidesz, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán recently stated that he seeks to join ECR after the EU elections in June, while Poland’s PiS, a member of the group, is open to the idea.
But several group members have objected to sharing ranks with Orbán, such as Czechia’s ODS and AUR, risking an internal split at a time when ECR is on course to become the third or fourth political force after the EU elections with boosted legislative influence, according to Europe Elects projections for Euractiv.
“The Hungarians have territorial claims that make it impossible for us to be in the same alliance. We don’t want to be friends with Putin’s friends”, the first Vice-President of the AUR party, Marius Lulea, said last week in Strasbourg about Orbán’s close ties with Russia.
In November 2022, Orbán caused a diplomatic spat with neighbouring EU countries by wearing a ‘Greater Hungary’ scarf, which included territories of Romania, Slovakia, Czechia, and Croatia, as well as Ukraine.
The far-right party, however, still hopes to maintain a united conservative and right-wing faction in the European Parliament to be able to shift the direction of the next legislature and reform the EU institutions: “We want to have a functional dialogue with all patriots in Europe,” Lulea said.
“Only together we can defeat the current establishment that threatens the very essence of European civilisation,” he added.
(Max Griera | Euractiv.com)
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Source: euractiv.com
