Prime Minister Viktor Orban sent a memorandum to the EPP leadership and all EPP sister- parties on 18 February urging for a debate on the future of the EPP. „We became a centrist party alliance, sliding from the Christian right-wing towards the left. In the eyes of voters, we are slowly becoming indistinguishable from the liberal, green, socialist left. We created an impression that the compromises necessary to secure our participation in government have become the core of our policy” – he cautions and recommends that “the diversity of our political group be reflected in the EPP’s governing bodies and that besides the representatives of the centrist forces, the representatives of the Christian right-wing also be given a seat at the table.”
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wrote a letter to EPP leaders and EPP party presidents this week to share a memorandum about the state and future of the EPP. The full text is available below:
Memorandum on the state of the European People’s Party
I.
From the outset, members of the European People’s Party have played an active and important role in European public discourse.
Without the EPP, Europe could not have formed a majority opinion and a political majority on such important issues as the ousting of the Soviet Union from Central Europe, the rejection and overthrow of communist political systems, the reunification of Europe with the countries liberated from Soviet occupation, the establishment of the Schengen Area and the creation of the Euro.
The EPP has stood firm and courageous in the storms of European debates. The EPP was resolutely pro-democracy, anti-communist, pro-market, anti-Marxist, pro-nation, in favour of building the Union on the basis of nations, pro-subsidiarity, anti-bureaucracy, Christian-inspired, and a committed representative and devotee of the Christian family model and the matrimony of one man and one woman. The EPP represented these values courageously, proudly and successfully under the pressure of its opponents, fashion trends and the left-wing liberal media majority.
In other words, the EPP’s mission was not merely to gain and retain governmental authority. The EPP strived for a Christian-conservative majority in society, and worked to create and to preserve it. It demanded and obtained government power as a natural consequence of the majority opinion of society.
The citizens of the continent have acknowledged and recognised EPP members and helped them form governments in most Member States. In 2011, we had 16 heads of government in the 27 countries of the Union, and 271 members in the European Parliament.
II.
By today, everything has changed.
Today we have only 9 prime ministers, we have 187 seats in the European Parliament and only few of our members can govern without a coalition partner.
Instead of stepping up against communism and Marxism, which left behind a painful legacy in Europe, we are applauding Fidel Castro and Karl Marx. Instead of the Christian-social Rhine model, we embrace egalitarian, socialistic social theories. Instead of subsidiarity, we are in favour of further centralisation and reinforcing the bureaucracy in Brussels.
We fail to represent Christian inspirations openly and self-consciously, if there are any left.
We gave up the family model based on the matrimony of one woman and one man, and fell into the arms of gender ideology. Instead of supporting the birth of children, we see mass migration as the solution to our demographic problems.
We indolently tolerate the disintegration of the Schengen Area and helplessly view the failure to involve the countries of the Balkans into the integration of Europe.
We are not offering an attractive alternative to our political adversaries, and we regard their issues and their interpretations as points of reference. We have exposed our internal conflicts to the general public. The differences between eastern and western, old and new member parties are not narrowed, but widened.
This is what we, the European People’s Party, are today.
We don’t stand up for ourselves as old and great Europeans, and don’t take on the fight against left-liberal intellectual forces and the media they influence and control.
We became a centrist party alliance, sliding from the Christian right-wing towards the left. In the eyes of voters, we are slowly becoming indistinguishable from the liberal, green, socialist left. We created an impression that the compromises necessary to secure our participation in government have become the core of our policy.
We are not fending off the attacks of the liberal left, we are conforming our views step-by-step and fail to stand up for our own values. We are not raising our voice loud enough against the socialists who are helping the radical anarchist communist left into government. We have created an impression that we are afraid to declare and openly accept who we are and what we want, as if we were afraid of losing our share of governmental authority because of ourselves.
III.
In this situation, an internal debate on the future mission of the EPP is inevitable.
Unfortunately, this did not take place at our last congress in Zagreb. On the contrary, instead of a productive debate, we elected a president who brought Polish domestic conflicts and interests into the EPP. This fact could have been experienced by everyone on the most recent Political Assembly.
We, the members of Fidesz have never concealed our opinion written on these pages. We believe that it is a democratic, legitimate and natural endeavour for a member party of our political family to initiate changing our policy guideline. Democracy and political success is always the result of a lively debate.
Therefore, we suggest the member parties of our political group to consider altering the strategic guideline of the EPP.
We recommend returning to the heritage of Martens. Wilfried Martens successfully united centre-right and right-wing parties of various roots and geographic backgrounds, he formed an alliance between traditional, continental Christian Democrats and northern conservatives, and managed to incorporate the Christian, right-wing, nation-oriented parties of the former communist countries into the EPP with an offensive enlargement policy. This helped us overtake the then strongest socialist left in the European Parliament. He formed a close parliamentary alliance with the Tories and a cooperation agreement with the ECR. Wilfried Martens sought alliances outside the Union as well, with the Turks, the Russians, and even the Chinese. He regarded American parties, especially the Republicans, as our natural allies.
We recommend supporting our member parties to cooperate and build coalitions not only with the left, but also with the right-wing in their countries.
We recommend that the diversity of our political group be reflected in the EPP’s governing bodies and that besides the representatives of the centrist forces, the representatives of the Christian right-wing also be given a seat at the table.
Unity is the most important thing, but in our situation today, unity, a new unity, can only be achieved through honest internal debates.