Xavier Bettel was the first to take the floor, when the 27 heads of state and government discussed, on Thursday 24 June, the Hungarian law which notably prohibits the “Promotion of homosexuality among minors”. The Luxembourg Prime Minister looked back on his adolescence, on the reaction of his mother who ” did not understand “ when he told her about his homosexuality. “Homosexuality is not a choice, you are born like that”, he told Viktor Orban, the Hungarian Prime Minister. Before the summit, Xavier Bettel also spoke on a very personal level: “ Accepting myself as gay was the hardest thing for me. To hear that maybe it’s because I watched something on TV when I was young is unacceptable. Like mixing pedophilia, pornography and homosexuality. “
“Being homosexual is not a choice, being homophobic is”, continued Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. Before his Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte, told the Hungarian leader that, if European values displeased him, he could activate Article 50 of the Treaty to leave the European Union (EU). This article “Was created for this”, thundered the Dutchman. And it was by using it that the British carried out Brexit …
On his arrival at the Council, Mr Rutte asked the Hungarian government to withdraw its text. He felt that, failing this, Mr. Orban’s country had “Nothing more to do in the European Union”. The Dutch Embassy to the EU had displayed the rainbow colors of LGBT people.
” I do not see where the problem is “, replied Mr. Orban to this first salvo. “I am a gay rights fighter. I was a freedom fighter under the communist regime. Homosexuality was punished and I fought for their freedom and their rights ”, he even declared before the meeting. A somewhat truncated version of the story: Hungary decriminalized homosexuality in 1961, twenty-eight years before the fall of the Berlin Wall. And in Budapest today, the media close to power are agitating the theory of a European conspiracy hatched by George Soros, the number one enemy of the nationalist leader. Hungarian justice minister Judit Varga denounces the approach “Colonialist” by M. Rutte.
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