Letter to Manfred Weber

Manfred Weber

Chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament

Brussels, 3 March 2021

Honourable Chairman,

As a result of adopting the changes to the Rules of procedure of the EPP Group, and in line with the decision of the governing body of Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance, we hereby announce that the twelve MEPs of Fidesz resign their membership in the EPP Group.

In times of a pandemic which is causing the death of thousands of Europeans every day and puts our citizens and economies under an unprecedented pressure, when EPP governments would rightfully expect support and solidarity from the EPP Group, we find it very inappropriate and politically unacceptable that the EPP Group engages in a precipitate administrative manoeuvre through questionable rules of suspension to prevent Members from exercising their rights as MEPs.

We have expressed our legal and political concerns several times throughout the negotiations, but these concerns have not been sufficiently addressed in the final version of the text. As a result, the amended Rules of procedure risks with limiting Fidesz MEPs ability to carry out their duties as elected Members of the European Parliament.

We are on the view that the democratic decision of nearly 2 millions of voters that supported Fidesz in the last European elections must be respected and therefore the rights of their representatives can in no way be restricted or deprived. We believe that addressing political differences by administrative measures is undemocratic and unworthy of the European People’s Party.

Sincerely yours,

Kinga Gál

President of the Fidesz Delegation

Tamás Deutsch

Head of the Fidesz Delegation