Orbán backs Weber as lead candidate in European election

Hungarian PM falls into line with other national center-right leaders.

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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán backs Manfred Weber to be the European People’s Party lead candidate in next year’s European Parliament election, a Hungarian minister said Thursday.

Minister Antal Rogán told Hungarian state news agency MTI that Orbán will “definitely” support Weber, leader of the center-right grouping in the Parliament, over former Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb.

The announcement comes a day after EPP officials said Weber has secured the support of all the pan-European party’s heads of government except Orbán.

Weber, a leading member of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union, has generally been supportive of Orbán over the past years but last month voted to trigger a disciplinary proceedings against Hungary over rule-of-law concerns.

Weber has nevertheless also repeatedly expressed interest in continuing dialogue with the Hungarian leader, who has been criticized for what observers terms an increasingly authoritarian approach at home. Stubb has taken a tougher line over Orbán, bluntly rejecting his vision of an “illiberal democracy.”

Two demands that Weber has publicly made of the Hungarian government, to safeguard the future of the Central European University in Budapest and to stop its crackdown on civil society, have not been met.