25 Apr

Fidesz could make or break the ECR's move towards the European mainstream

As the populist radical right-wing parties of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European Parliament gain momentum before the June elections, their efforts to move towards the center and cooperate with the mainstream could be disrupted by Fidesz's effort to join the group. At the same time, the parties in the Visegrad countries could make or break Fidesz's bid to join the ECR, as they see Russia's war against Ukraine very differently from Fidesz.

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V. Putin visiting Hungary in 2017 (EPA/Alexei Druzhinin)

There was a time when Kiev perceived the Visegrad Group as an „advocate” of the Ukrainian case in the EU. Today, it prefers to pursue relations with them on a more bilateral basis, in an interview says Jurij Panczenko, expert of Ukrainian portal “European Pravda”.

Montenegro. (Pixabay)

All Visegrad Group countries declare their commitment to the enlargement of the EU and NATO, with a unanimous focus on integrating Western Balkan (WB) countries. This unanimity fades in relation to Kosovo, although according to Péter Szijjártó, a Hungarian MFA, “The more members we [the EU] have, the stronger we are”.

Angela Merkel at the meeting of V4+ in Bratislava. (TASR/Martin Baumann)

The fear in Berlin that the V4 acting as a blocking minority on more European policy dossiers has softened. Instead, German policy-makers and analysts are trying to identify common ground between Germany and the V4, while at the same time doing justice to existing national differences, writes Anna-Lena Kirch from the Hertie School of governance.

Macron meeting "the good boys" of the V4 in Paris. (TASR/Marko Erd).

The French perspective on Visegrad has gone through a certain amount of evolutions since the summer of 2015, which marks a turning point in going from a relative unknown to an object of increased interest, albeit not necessarily for positive reasons.

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