At the EU summit on Thursday, outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte condemned Hungary’s new anti-gay law and challenged the country to start the process of leaving the EU.
In response to Hungary’s new anti-gay law which prohibits those under 18 from being exposed to content relating to homosexuality, Mark Rutte has criticized the country, saying, “they have no business in the EU for me”, reports Nu.nl.
According to insiders, during a heated discussion about the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community, Rutte asked Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán why he does not use Article 50 of the EU treaty to terminate his country’s membership, if he does not want to meet the standards and values of the union.
This is the article that the United Kingdom used to begin the the Brexit procedure in March 2017.
Support from other EU leaders
Rutte found support amongst many other EU leaders who also condemned Hungary’s new law. Before the leaders met in Brussels, seventeen of them had already announced where they stand — declaring themselves in favour of LGBTQIA+ rights and promising to fight against discrimination.
Many of the leaders were moved by Luxembourg Prime Minister, Xavier Bettel’s personal story — he himself is married to a man. According to Rutte,”Everyone had tears in their eyes.” Nevertheless, Orbán received support from allies Poland and Slovenia.
What does the law entail?
Hungary’s parliament has just passed a new anti-gay law, which, among other things, prohibits exposure of content relating to homosexuality to be shown to people under the age of 18. As a result, series and films in which gay people appear will no longer be broadcast on TV before 11 PM — goodbye Modern Family!
Even more concerning, schools will be prohibited from providing information about homosexuality and transgenderism.
A war of words
Responding to the firestorm directed at Hungary, the country’s Justice Minister, Judit Varga tweeted that this is “nothing more than a new episode in the blackmail series”. She added that “Hungary does not want to leave the EU. On the contrary, we want to save her from hypocrites.”
What are your thoughts on this row? Tell us in the comments below!
Feature Image: Ale_Mi/Depositphotos
PM Rutte is right. Hungary’s values no longer fit with EU human rights policies and standards. Time to reevaluate their membership if their attitudes don’t change.
Hungarian here: please note that a handful of politicians who currently govern Hungary has made this decision on their own, without asking people.
Leaving the EU would mostly strike the life of the remaining ~9 million people there. They are the real victims of Orban’s regime, and I am pretty sure most of people disagrees with Orban’s party decisions.
One might ask: why are those politicians still in their seats? The answer is simple: they abuse their power to channel money from the EU to the East (Russia/China, etc.) and they get support from those dictatures to keep their power. They slice up all the opposing parties with some serious communist tactics (they’ve bought the media, key people etc.) so it’s practically impossible to move them.
But this is not a new thing, it’s been going on like this for years already.
Why is Hungary still in the EU then?
Because for eg. Germany has multiple car factories there and they need the cheap labor. So they simply close their eyes over these issues, for the money of course.
However, opening to the East is a serious humanitarian and economical threat. This anti-gay law is just a part of the story. They also provide access for eastern spies, etc. to the EU via Hungary, and that is really dangerous for the whole Union.
They’ve made these deals secretly with the East for years to come, so it’s unlikely that a change of government would make a significant difference.
So I also agree with Rutte. Kick HU out, and save the Union.
All the leaders of Europe who support the LGBTQ lifestyle and have turned their backs to the traditional family lifestyle, support death and the end of Europe. 98 percent of the world is composed of living, breathing people who support the vibrancy of the traditional family and will simply replace the walking dead of Western Europe. Victor Orban and the majority of the Hungarian people don’t want to be sucked into the death cult of the EU and will soon leave it.
Out with Hungarian homophobic attitudes, Very much a Put in attitude, usually the excuse is how can the population procreate without man or woman. I would like to bring the attention of things like artificial insemination where you can procreate without the use of phisical body contact. Wake up. Life is not to fight each other but live with each other, love each other not sexual but with heart. We must never forget what the few did with the jews and how minds were brainwashed to believing they were wrong. We must remind homophobic attitudes are hurtful and wrong. Change is required and if the Majority 17 countries in Europe say its wrong that must say something.