Tag: Prime Minister of Hungary

No, they belong to the same EPP Christian Democrat group, the dominant force in the European Parliament, and should in theory be close allies in May’s European Union election. Some traditional political powerhouses might start to crumble, allowing extremist, populist parties to gain more clout and throw a new wrench into the EU’s political machinery. “We’ve never seen something like this in EU elections,” said European politics Professor Hendrik Vos of Ghent University about the abrasive election climate. National political parties with common ideology then unite in EU-wide groups like the center-right EPP, the center-left S&D Socialists and the liberal, pro-business ALDE. Over the years, the major political groups started looking at adding unattached national parties to expand their bases. Orban’s Fidesz party followed soon after. Over a dozen EU nations have fragile minority governments and Poland has turned as hostile toward Brussels as Hungary. The first projections for the 705-seat legislature, produced this week by the parliament itself, show the EPP Christian Democrats struggling with 183 seats, the S&D Socialists losing big to land at 135 seats and their grand coalition short of a majority for the first time. That would be music to Orban’s ears and a massive defeat for Juncker. Since Juncker is not running for another term as Commission president, the vote in May could be the last round of their fight.