ADVERTISEMENT

Macron Calls EU’s Hungary Censure a First Step to Fighting ‘Illiberals’

Macron Calls EU’s Hungary Censure a First Step to Fighting ‘Illiberals’

(Bloomberg) -- French President Emmanuel Macron’s government called the European Parliament vote censuring Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban as a first step in the fight against “illiberals” in the region.

Attempting to frame the vote in the context of the May 2019 European parliamentary elections, France said it presented a choice of “values” for the Old Continent’s future. Macron has sought to take the lead in fighting nationalists including Hungary’s Orban and Italy’s Matteo Salvini. He has called himself their “main opponent.”

EU lawmakers voted on Wednesday for Orban’s government to face possible sanctions for eroding democratic standards. The 448-to-197 vote came after Orban’s years of assault on civil liberties, judicial independence, educational freedom and media plurality. In his third consecutive term as Hungary’s leader, he has boasted about creating an “illiberal” state, thumbed his nose at the EU and helped thwart deeper European integration.

Macron’s Republic On The Move is “delighted that the EU lawmakers heard our call” to fight nationalists, Christophe Castaner, party leader and a close ally of the president, said in statement.

A French presidential aide said Wednesday’s vote will contribute to the “regrouping” of European political entities around common values, while not going so far as to say it would bolster the “alliance” that Macron is seeking to build. The 40-year-old leader wants to create a pan-European, trans-party political group of “progressive” politics against nationalists.

‘Strong Signal’

The vote to censure Orban is a very “strong signal” against the bloc’s rising nationalism, Macron’s aide said. EU lawmakers who abstained, including some members of France’s opposition Republicans party, showed “complacency” toward Orban’s regime, the official said.

The vote showed deep “fractures” within the conservative EPP, the official said. The EPP is the biggest political group in the EU and holds a great deal of sway over the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU.

“EPP tearing itself apart, incapable of adopting a clear position in a debate that is thought essential,” Castaner said.

The vote also underlined the strains in Italy’s coalition government, with the populist Five Star party voting to censure Orban while the far-right, anti-migrant Lega party of Salvini voting against the measure, the official said. The French leader’s aide welcomed Five Star’s choice, saying it showed that the fight against nationalism transcends political groups.

Europe’s unity behind a “progressive” ideology is “fundamental” in the current global climate, with the rise of Europe’s nationalists and in the face of to U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies, the official said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Helene Fouquet in Paris at hfouquet1@bloomberg.net;Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net, Vidya Root, Geraldine Amiel

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.