Hungary’s Orban to host European Parliament group leader over possible ouster

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungary’s prime minister will host the leader of the main center-right faction in the European Parliament to discuss the Hungarian ruling party’s possible ouster from the group.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s office says that the meeting with Manfred Weber will take place Tuesday in Budapest.

Several smaller members of the European People’s Party have called for the expulsion of Orban’s Fidesz party, in part because of a government ad campaign in Hungary against the EU’s migration policies, as well as longstanding concerns over the Orban government’s perceived interference with the rule of law and the EU’s democratic principles.

The ads feature European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who is an EPP politician, with Hungarian-American financier George Soros. Orban, who won a third consecutive term last year with a primarily anti-migration campaign, claims Soros is influencing EU leaders to allow large numbers of mostly Muslim migrants to come to Europe.

Weber has called for Orban to end the campaign and apologize for it, as well as allow the Soros-founded Central European University to remain in Budapest. From the next academic year, CEU is moving its US-accredited programs to Vienna because the Hungarian government has refused to sign an agreement safeguarding all of its activities in Hungary.

— AP