New European People's Party President Donald Tusk delivers a speech during the European People's Party (EPP) congress in Zagreb | Denis Lovrovic/AFP via Getty Donald Tusk: EPP will decide on Fidesz expulsion ‘at the end of January’ New EPP president says he will wait on report into Hungarian party.

ZAGREB — The European People's Party will decide whether to expel Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party from its ranks "at the end of January" and after "intensive consultations," Donald Tusk told reporters at the party's congress in Zagreb.

"My intention is to have a decision about this issue at the end of January," Tusk said, a day after he was elected president of the EPP, replacing Frenchman Jospeh Daul.

The EPP suspended Fidesz in March in a bid to show voters that it was serious on Budapest's anti-EU rhetoric and backsliding on the rule of law.

The conservative group also set up a three-person panel of "wise men," including former Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, to investigate the state of democracy and the rule of law in Hungary and issue recommendations on whether the EPP should expel Fidesz.

According to EPP officials, the "wise men," who have met Orbán twice and are scheduled to meet him again in December, are due to issue their recommendations in early 2020.

Tusk said he would wait for that report and then "I'll start very intensive consultations."

Tusk said was Orbán a "very close friend," but he didn't agree with "ideas represented" by the Hungarian leader especially his "illiberal democracy."

"We are determined to fight against that type of idea," Tusk added.