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Letter of Tamás Deutsch to Members of the EPP Group

2020. 12. 04.

Letter of Tamás Deutsch to Members of the EPP Group

Budapest, 4 December 2020

Honourable Colleagues,

With regard to the proposed expulsion against my person, I would like to inform you of the following.

The baseless allegations – according to which I would have compared Chairman Weber to the Gestapo and the Hungarian Communist secret police, the ÁVO – that arose after the misinterpreted interview in the Hungarian press on November 25 were immediately clarified in a letter sent to the Chairman the day after the interview. I put it this way, “Of course, I had no intention of insulting you personally, and if I did, I would apologize”. During our telephone conversation the other day, I was convinced that the Chairman had taken note of my apology.

Some members of the EPP Group have again called for the immediate expulsion of Fidesz from the EPP, citing press reports on the interview, with Mr. Othmar Karas stating, “Deutsch will either apologize or leave”. An apology happened, after which Mr. Karas started collecting signatures for my exclusion from the Group.

For the sake of clarity, I would like to emphasize that this interview was not directed against anyone, but criticized a procedure which, in my firm opinion, has no guarantee of the rule of law and does not serve legal certainty. I have pointed out that I do not agree with the rule of law conditionality, which is reminiscent of a time when, on the basis of arbitrary political decisions, anyone could be punished at any time, for any reason. So, to be unequivocally clear, it is not those who argue for the new mechanism, nor the rule of law principle, that is reminiscent of political arbitrariness, but the specific mechanism provided for in the political agreement made between the European Parliament and the Council.

It is sad that it became a common practice in the EPP that, instead of holding political debates, some people threaten to expel those with different opinions. As I pointed out in the interview, differences of opinion within a democratic political community should not be “treated” in ways similar to those of the Communist State Party. 

We all remember that this spring, the 15 national delegations of the EPP Group demanded the expulsion of Fidesz members from the group on the basis of absurd rumors circulating about Hungarian epidemiological measures, which were later proven to be false. Nevertheless, neither an apology nor the withdrawal of the expulsion request was granted. It is also a double-standard procedure that while I, as a Fidesz politician, am threatened with expulsion for my critical statement about a specific measure, the grossest personal insults and slanders against Fidesz and its leaders from within the EPP go unpunished.

Another important fact is that the preparations for the European Council of December are taking place these days. As the head of the Fidesz-KDNP delegation, the threat of my expulsion in itself gives the undesirable appearance that the EPP Group intends to put pressure on the Hungarian government for its eventual veto to the MFF/NGEU agreement in this way.

In view of the above arguments, I reject the false allegations in the expulsion request and consider the proposal to be unjustified, unfounded and irresponsible. 

Yours Sincerely,

Tamás Deutsch MEP

Head of the Hungarian EPP Delegation