EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: EPP Votes To Admit Hungarian Opposition TISZA Party

The largest political grouping in the European Parliament, the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), has voted to admit Hungary's opposition Respect and Freedom Party (TISZA). TISZA is a newly-expanded political force that has risen to prominence following after Peter Magyar - political activist and ex-husband of former Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga - became leader in the spring. Magyar's political movement, which brands itself as anti-corruption and 'anti-feudalistic', rose from nowhere to second place in the EP elections, winning seven of Hungary's 21 seats. 

• Hungarian PM Viktor Orban's populist Fidesz party once sat as part of the EPP, until the party and gov'ts rightward shift saw relations become too strained. Fidesz withdrew from the EPP in 2021. The admittance of the party posing most of a threat to Orban's Fidesz could further sour relations with the EPP as it attempts to get Commission President Ursula von der Leyen a second term in office. Fidesz has yet to join a group, but there is the prospect it could join the conservative European Conservatives and Reformists or right-wing nationalist Identity and Democracy.
• The EPP has also voted to admit MEPs from other non-alingned parties: the Netherlands' Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB, 2 MEP's) and New Social Contract (NSC, 1 MEP), Czechia's Mayors and Independents (STAN, 2 MEPs), Germany's Family Party (FAMILIE, 1 MEP), and Denmark's Liberal Alliance (LA, 1 MEP). The EPP's seat total will now sit at 190 out of 720, well ahead of the second-largest centre-left Socialists and Democrats on 136 MEPs.