© Reuters/YVES HERMANFILE PHOTO: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrives for an EU summit in Brussels
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary's ruling Fidesz party said on Wednesday it was leaving the largest, centre-right political group in the European parliament after the assembly moved towards suspending it in a tug-of-war over Prime Minister Viktor Orban's democratic record.
The ejection of Fidesz from the European People's Party (EPP) group in the parliament is likely to reduce Orban's clout in Brussels following a long conflict over his perceived backsliding on the rule of law and human rights.
"I hereby inform you that Fidesz MEPs resign their membership in the EPP Group," Orban wrote in a March 3 letter to the faction's head, Manfred Weber, which was published on Twitter by Katalin Novak, a Fidesz vice-president.
(Reporting by Budapest and Brussels bureaus, writing by Marton Dunai and Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Toby Chopra and Timothy Heritage)