UPDATE 2-Hungary to replace anti-Brussels billboards next week -PM aide
On Tuesday European People's Party (EPP) group leader Manfred Weber demanded that Orban's Fidesz party take down billboards attacking European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker which were part of its campaign ahead of the European Parliament elections in May. Orban's chief of staff Gergely Gulyas said the posters would be replaced next week by others touting Orban's plans to increase the birth rate and that Fidesz wanted to stay in the EPP.
"The government has approved the plan about the protection of families, so from next week, these billboards will be on display," Gulyas said. He declined to respond to repeated questions about later stages of the campaign, saying "I can only inform you about next week".
Weber told Bild newspaper he expected an apology to EPP member parties, an immediate and permanent end to Orban's anti-EU campaigns and renewed government support for Central European University (CEU) to stay in Budapest. "It is a good signal, taking down the posters there, that was one of the requests I made this week," Weber said, adding however that "criteria are criteria" when asked whether all three of his requests would have to be met.
Gulyas did not say whether Orban planned to apologise but did add that Budapest considered the matter of the CEU closed. The university has accused Orban of trying to kick it out of Hungary. Fidesz has made its anti-immigration stance the main plank of its campaign for the European elections in May, putting up billboards accusing Juncker and U.S. billionaire George Soros of plotting to destroy European civilisation through immigration.
Hungary's main pro-government Magyar Nemzet daily has urged Orban's Fidesz to quit the EPP, saying it had abandoned its formative values and "could not be differentiated from the socialists or liberals". "The time has come for Fidesz to stop the humiliating haggling with the European People's Party," the paper said in an editorial titled 'A new alliance!' on Thursday, which suggested Fidesz should join forces with European nationalists instead.
State news agency MTI quoted Orban as saying calm was needed amid rising "campaign fever" in the run-up to the European elections. Asked about the editorial, Gulyas said Fidesz wanted to remain within the EPP.
"Fidesz is a member of the European People's Party and it wants to remain a member of the European People's Party," Gulyas said. He said Fidesz was not in talks with parties outside the EPP, which he said remained the best platform for Orban's party to pursue its brand of Christian Democrat politics. (Reporting by Gergely Szakacs Additional reporting by Alan Charlish in Warsaw Editing by Catherine Evans and Raissa Kasolowsky)
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