EU center-right group faces decision on Orban's party
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FILE - In this Sunday, Feb. 10, 2019 file photo, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban delivers his annual "State of Hungary" speech in Budapest, Hungary. The inscription reads: "For us Hungary is the first!" Hungary’s populist prime minister says calls for his party’s expulsion from a European Parliament group serve left-wing rivals. The debate in the European People’s Party follows a Hungarian government ad campaign against migration. (Szilard Koszticsak/MTI via AP, File )
The head of the European Parliament's main center-right group says he has received enough letters seeking the expulsion of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's party to put the matter to a decision.
Orban has been strongly identified for years with anti-migrant rhetoric. In recent weeks, he angered many in the European People's Party with a campaign of government ads accusing European Union leaders of promoting mass migration. They depict European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, a fellow EPP member, and Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros.
EPP president Joseph Daul told Tuesday's edition of German daily Die Welt that he's received enough letters to put the membership of Orban's Fidesz party "on the agenda of the next meetings."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Daul said that "there is a limit and Viktor Orban has crossed the red line."