Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker was the one who picked a fight with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and he should stop meddling in party politics, former PM and leader of the centre-right Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) told EURACTIV Croatia.
“If you read the European press, there is only talk of Orbán attacking Juncker. And in fact, Juncker was the one who started the conflict. As president of the Commission he should not, in my opinion, interfere in party politics,” said two-time prime minister Janez Janša, now an opposition leader.
Janša is a close ally of Orbán and their parties are both members of the European People’s Party (EPP), as is Juncker.
The EPP will decide on 20 March, at the request of 13 party members, whether or not to expel Orbán’s Fidesz party following an anti-EU campaign against Juncker. In a letter on Thursday (14 March), Orbán apologised for calling the 13 party members “useful idiots.”
SDS has already announced it would vote against the expulsion of Fidesz.
“Great political confederations such as EPP must be able to live with differences or otherwise it will not survive,” he said.
“I think the EPP needs the Christian Socialists from Luxembourg as well as Fidesz from Hungary because it is the only way to be strong and influential. It would be a great loss if the EPP disintegrates.”
He called French President Emmanuel Macron an “inflated balloon” but praised new CDU chief Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (EPP), saying that she had announced her EU vision, something that Angela Merkel never did.