Orban Blinks to Avoid Expulsion From European Mainstream

  • Hungarian government to suspend plan to carve up top court
  • Orban’s leverage in Europe largest party slips after EU vote

Viktor Orban in Brussels on May 28.

Photographer: John Thys/AFP via Getty Images

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Hungary’s nationalist prime minister unexpectedly suspended a plan to carve up the country’s supreme court as he scrambles to avoid expulsion from the European political mainstream.

The climbdown by Viktor Orban’s government was announced by a senior minister Thursday. It came after his victory in European Union parliamentary elections was eclipsed by centrist parties closing ranks against a nationalist surge that failed to post enough gains to shift the bloc's direction.