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DEUTSCH: EPP SHIFTING TOWARDS CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY

 

There is a clear and definite shift in the European People’s Party towards Christian democracy, which is the direction that Fidesz-KDNP represents, MEP Tamás Deutsch of the ruling party told public media in Helsinki, ahead the EPP congress.
Deutsch said the congress starting on Tuesday afternoon would make decisions on initiatives, resolutions and draft positions. A draft resolution that has attracted much interest in the Hungarian press concerns constitutionality, and this was also discussed at a meeting on Tuesday morning, when party representatives reviewed the documents submitted to the congress, Deutsch said. An amendment proposal supported by Fidesz to remove a reference to liberal democratic values from the document and replace it with Christian democratic values has been approved, he added. This marks a significant shift towards Christian democratic values and there is a good chance that “Manfred Weber will have a sweeping majority” as the EPP top candidate, Deutsch said. This means that the candidate that belongs to the Christian democrat side of the EPP will get the majority support of delegates as against Alexander Stubb who “represents the extreme liberal side”, he added.
These two developments show that in the internal competition between the Christian democrats and the liberal democrats, support for Christian democratic values, also backed by Fidesz, is stronger, he said.
The Fidesz-KDNP party alliance is represented by 34 delegates at the congress, which is the fifth largest group among the parties that belong to the EPP, he added.