Orbán ally-turned-rival Péter Magyar joins centre-right EPP group in the European Parliament

The European Parliament's centre-right faction has opened its arms to Péter Magyar, the thorn in Orbán’s side who is swapping Budapest for Brussels.

Transcript

00:00The European Parliament's largest group, the European People's Party, said it would allow

00:07new parties into its ranks on Tuesday.

00:12One notable member was Hungarian party Tisza and its leader, Peter Magá.

00:17Magá is the political opponent of Hungarian Premier Viktor Orban, who left the EPP over

00:24disagreements on the rule of law in Hungary.

00:27Brussels and the European Parliament helped a lot to Prime Minister Orban to play this

00:32game in Hungary and to use this Article 7 procedure, the rule of law procedure, for

00:40his own political purposes.

00:42So we see that we need a new approach from the European Parliament as well.

00:47Our priority is to close the Article 7 procedure and to close the rule of law procedure and

00:53somehow to bring back home to Hungary the EU funds which are crucial for the Hungarian

00:58small and medium-sized enterprises from the Hungarian farmer.

01:02The Dutch farmer-citizen movement has also been accepted into the EPP group for the first

01:07time.

01:09Its members said that their party contests the goals of the Green Deal.

01:13We as a BBB party are very critical of the intermediate binding targets for 2040 and

01:19we will continue to be critical about these.

01:23With its 14 new members, the EPP group now has 190 seats and has reaffirmed its position

01:30as the strongest political group in the European Parliament.

01:33Today is a great moment for us as the European People's Party.

01:36We have the constitutive meeting, so the new elected colleagues will come together and

01:40that shows the strength of the European People's Party, thanks to the support of the voters

01:44of Europe.

01:45So that is the starting point for the next five years.

01:48However, entrances have also brought exits, such as the smaller Hungarian coalition party

01:54KDNP who announced that they are leaving the group.