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All seven MEPs from Hungary’s opposition Tisza party have been sanctioned by the European People’s Party (EPP) Group for not supporting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at a motion of censure vote brought against her on Thursday.
Tisza, led by Péter Magyar, is the leading opposition force in Hungary, and is challenging Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government at the country’s parliamentary elections on 12 April.
The party is a member of the EPP Group, which supports it in its campaign to overthrow Orbán’s nationalist government. The group adopted new rules earlier this week to strengthen voting discipline, meaning members are now automatically penalised if they don’t align with the party’s position on key votes.
As a result of the EPP Group sanctions, none of Tisza’s seven MEPs can speak at plenary sessions for the next six months, and they cannot hold rapporteurship of new files in the Parliament.
“We were punished because, contrary to the People’s Party’s position, we did not participate in Thursday’s vote on the motion of no confidence against the President of the European Commission,” party leader Péter Magyar wrote on Facebook.
“Tisza MEPs take note of the decision,” he added. “At the same time, we are thankful for the confirmation from Brussels that Tisza politicians have no owners.”
The motion of censure was initiated by far right Patriots for Europe group over the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement, but the European Parliament backed her with a hefty majority. Tisza did not comment on why they declined to back von der Leyen with their votes.
Besides Tisza, other EPP MEPs also dissented from the party line on the motion: four abstained, while one, Jessika van Leeuwen from the Dutch Farmer–Citizen Movement, voted against von der Leyen.
Orbán targets Tisza as “Brussels puppet”
Tisza joined the EPP in 2024 after securing 30% of the Hungarian vote at that year’s European elections. In the latest opinion polls, the party is running ahead of the ruling coalition led by Orbán’s party, Fidesz.
Orbán often derides Magyar as subservient to EU leaders, and claims his election victory would undermine Hungary’s sovereignty. Government billboards have portrayed him as a puppet of von der Leyen.
Last September, the prime minister explicitly framed the election as a strategic choice between his nationalist-sovereignist party on the one hand and Tisza’s supposed Europeanism – a politics that Orbán claimed warned “would be catastrophic, with consequences pushing us into chaos and poverty”.
Orbán has also claimed that if Tisza comes to power, it would vote to admit Ukraine into the European Union.
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