Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, in an interview to Germany’s Bild, said he would strive for the success of the European People’s Party.

“I want the EPP to win the European Parliament election, but afterwards there will be a debate on the direction it takes,” he told the paper. Orbán said he still considered the EPP his “political home”. He added that whether Fidesz stayed in the EPP or joined a new alliance depended on the EPP. “[There’s] a painful debate ahead of us,” he said.

The prime minister cautioned the EPP against joining forces with the left wing, which he said planned “European socialism”, the price of which would be paid by Germans and central Europeans. He said that in Italy, Matteo Salvini, the interior minister who leads the League party, “is doing a good job”. After the election, all options for an alliance with him should be on the table, he added.

He blamed the Scandinavian and Benelux members of the EPP for strife in the grouping and the initiative to exclude Fidesz from the EPP, saying its leaders were too weak to rebuff it.