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| - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is seeking conservative backing to remain within Europe's main centre-right political bloc despite concerns over his adoption of emergency powers to rule by decree. The nationalist leader argues he needs unchecked authority to combat the coronavirus epidemic, but opponents accuse him of launching a power grab under cover of the crisis. Brussels has expressed concern and vowed to monitor developments, as calls mount for the European People's Party (EPP) to throw the Hungarian leader's governing Fidesz party out of their group. Orban has contacted leading EPP figures -- including, in a letter obtained by AFP, the powerful head of Germany's CDU, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer -- appealing for support, party figures said. Opposing him is EPP president and former Polish leader Donald Tusk, who is lobbying the affiliate parties in the EU member states to reconsider their support for Fidesz's place in their ranks. "Donald Tusk seems to align himself to the rhetoric of the European liberals and left, expressing unfounded concerns about the democratic commitment of some of our parties," Orban told Kramp-Karrenbauer. "Those who are unable to help should at least refrain from hindering the efforts of others," he complained. "This is not a game. The lives of our citizens are at stake in every member state." The CDU would not comment on the letter, which urges the German conservative to support Orban against Tusk. But Tusk issued a letter of his own to the heads of EPP member parties. In it, he says that many now feel that Hungary's emergency measures "are disproportionate and inadequate, and what is more, they have been introduced for an indefinite period of time. "Many of you, even if you criticised PM Orban for his previous decisions, did not agree to expel Fidesz from our political family," Tusk said, referring to Orban's victory in a similar dispute last year. "Today, we have of course, much more important things on our mind, our top priority is the fight against the pandemic. But the time will soon come, when you will have to again reconsider your positions." On Monday, the Hungarian parliament -- dominated by Fidesz -- voted to install a state of emergency that allows Orban to govern without oversight and the government to punish "falsehoods" about the virus. Fidesz has been suspended from EPP decision-making over earlier moves that its allies saw as threatening European values, but its votes are still useful to the right in the European Parliament. Now, it may have gone too far. "Making use of the pandemic to build a 'state of a permanent state of emergency' is politically dangerous, and morally unacceptable," Tusk tweeted. Tusk, the former president of the European Council, has long been in favour of dislodging the Hungarian contingent from the mainstream right, but the decision will come down to the affiliate parties. csg-dc/rmb/pvh
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