Viktor Orban's Right-wing Fidesz party was on Wednesday suspended from the European People’s Party group amid fears Hungary’s strongman leader was trampling on the rule of law and indulging in gratuitous Brussels-bashing.

Mr Orban, renowned for his anti-EU and anti-migration posturing, was present for the day long discussions over disciplinary measures, which could have included expulsion of Fidesz’ 12 MEPs from the group.

The centre-right EPP is the largest group in the European Parliament and counts Angela Merkel, Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk among its members.

The Hungarian prime minister told the EPP delegates that his party could not accept that suspension, raising the prospect of his MEPs joining a different, more nationalist and anti-Brussels alliance of MEPs after May’s European Parliament elections.

Mr Orban's chief of staff signalled that Fidesz would quit the EPP rather than see its membership suspended, saying it was a question of national "dignity".

Mr Orban has drawn criticism for running a poster campaign targeting Mr Juncker, the president of the European Commission, and Jewish billionaire philanthropist George Soros, which was widely condemned as anti-Semitic.