It does not even deserve a comment as it is nothing other than personal revenge in light of the fact that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán did not support him when he ran for the office of President of the Commission four years ago, Government Spokesperson Zoltán Kovács said in response to the fact that according to Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission Mr Orbán no longer has a place in the European People’s Party (EPP).
In his message Mr Kovács wrote that the differences related to migration make the case of personal revenge even more evident. The Hungarian government will never accept the pro-migration position which Juncker represents, he added.
In an interview given to the French daily Le Monde which was published on Friday afternoon, Jean-Claude Juncker said, among other things, that “Viktor Orbán no longer has a place in the European People’s Party. (…) Although I respect the man, I see many incompatibilities between his words and the Christian democratic values on which the EPP family is based, unless he will guarantee us that he respects the fundamental values and the electoral programme of the EPP”.
At the EPP summit held before the informal Salzburg EU summit of 19-20 September, Jean-Claude Juncker already initiated the expulsion of Fidesz from the EPP.
In this context, Antal Rogán, the Minister heading the Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister highlighted it was regrettable that the President of the Commission made this suggestion when Mr Orbán was no longer in the room as he had to go to a one-to-one meeting with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Despite this, at the debate which was conducted in the Prime Minister’s absence, attendees of the EPP summit clearly rejected the EC President’s proposal, and as a result the process has not been triggered, the Minister pointed out. In June 2014, in addition to the British Prime Minister, the Hungarian Prime Minister was the other leader in the European Council who did not support Jean-Claude Juncker’s nomination to the office of President of the European Commission.