EP Conservatives ECR co-chair calls Orbán ‘compatible with Europe’

Addressing an ECR meeting in Subiaco, Italy, on Thursday, Nicola Procaccini said the Orbán was “democratically elected and he is member of the European Union”. He said Orbán “has his own views, but he has proved that he is compatible with Europe, because he voted to support Ukraine”.

Speaking about the upcoming EP elections in June, Procaccini said it would “bid farewell to the Ursula von der Leyen-led EC majority”, expecting “a strong sea change” compared to the situation five years ago.

Procaccini, who is group leader of the conservative Brothers of Italy party (FdI) in the EP, said “it can be known in advance that the next European Commission will be centre-right, irrespective of the EP ballot’s outcome, because the commissioners will have been nominated mostly by center-right European governments”.

The politician said that Valerie Hayer, president of the centrist liberal Renew Europe group in the European Parliament, on Thursday mounted “an aggressive attack” against the president and the EP group of the ECR, adding that Hayer’s words reflected fear over losing “a central role in the balance of European institutions”.