BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungary will replace anti-Brussels billboards that have prompted a threat to kick the ruling Fidesz Party out of the European Parliament’s main center-right group, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff Gergely Gulyas said on Thursday.

Asked about an ultimatum from European EPP group leader Manfred Weber, who has demanded Hungary get rid of billboards attacking European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Gulyas said the billboards would be replaced next week by others touting Orban’s plans to increase the birth rate.

“If this means the billboards, 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 for elections to the European Parliament, saying “I can only inform you about next week”.

Before Weber’s ultimatum on Tuesday, Orban told the German Welt am Sonntag newspaper that images of Juncker would be replaced with Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans in the next phase of the Hungarian campaign.

Hungary has made hostility to immigration 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 civilization by bringing in masses of Muslims.

Hungary’s main pro-government Magyar Nemzet daily has urged Orban’s Fidesz to quit the European People’s Party, 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. “The People’s Party is no longer Helmut Kohl’s party.”

Orban has said the former German chancellor invited Fidesz to join the EPP. Asked about the newspaper 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 of the editorial, which suggested Fidesz should join forces with European nationalists instead.

Gulyas 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.

Source: Read Full Article