President of EPP Manfred Weber invites Hungarian newcomer Tisza into fold

Peter Magyar’s Tisza party, a newcomer to Hungarian politics, is welcomed to join the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) after last week’s electoral gains, says Manfred Weber, President and Group Leader of the EU Parliament’s ruling majority.

Tisza won seven of Hungary’s 21 European Parliament seats in the pan-EU election, surpassing Hungarian President Victor Orban’s Fidesz and Christian Democrat allies.

Weber extended the welcome to the centrist Tisza party after meeting with its leader Peter Magyar, and Tisza politicians in Budapest on Friday.

He congratulated Tisza on “the democratic success in Hungary, to the support from the citizens..” saying he had seen “a lot of very qualified personalities” and would report back to the EPP group.

“Based on what I have seen here on the ground, I must say that the seven colleagues are welcome in the People’s Party group, so the door is open,” Weber told Euronews.

Analysts say the situation of the EPP not having a proper Hungarian member party would finally be over, and the additional seven Tisza MEPs could further increase the number of EPP seats.

Speaking at a joint press conference, Magyar of the Tisza party described the new opportunity as “the beginning of a fruitful European friendship”.

He noted that the EPP plays a crucial role in EU decision-making, despite Hungarian government predictions.

Magyar said his party has worked out the technical and content details of the joint work with the EPP.

“On Monday we will go to Brussels and on Tuesday the EPP Group will meet,” said Magyar.

The EPP’s 83 members are to have the final say on Tisza membership on Monday.

Tisza MEPs will not join the EPP alliance

For the time being, the Tisza party MEPs would only join the parliamentary group of EPP, not the alliance itself.

Magyar, 43 has said that he aims for his party to be firmly centrist and operate on an anti-corruption platform to improve the Hungarian quality of life.

He has emerged as a threat to Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s control, promising to tackle state corruption and restore democratic checks and balances.

Viktor Orban’s right-wing Fidesz party won big at Hungary’s 2024 EU elections on Sunday but lost major support.

Fidesz’s traditional opponents, including the social-democrat and Green parties, only received eight percent of the votes and did not meet the threshold for entry into the European Parliament.

Hungary is due to take over the six-month presidency of the Council of the EU in July.