The European Parliament on Thursday approved a resolution calling for legal action in response to a new law in Hungry banning the portrayal or promotion of homosexuality to minors under the age of 18.
The new Hungarian legislation would affect the teaching of sex education in schools, by forbidding the use of materials seen as promoting homosexuality.
MEP’s argued that the law violates “EU values, principles, and law,” adding that law is “another intentional and premeditated example of the gradual dismantling of fundamental rights in Hungary.” The resolution passed on Thursday says the new Hungarian law is part of a broader pattern of political censorship.
The resolution calls calls for legal action at the European Court of Justice against Hungary’s government. It also calls for the European Commission reduce budget allocations to Hungary to force the government to reverse course. Such a course would take advantage of new EU rules aimed at punishing member states that violate the rule of law.
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, has spoken out strongly against what he describes as EU interference in national sovereignty. “The European Parliament and the European Commission want that we let LGBTQ activists and organisations into the kindergartens and schools. Hungary does not want that,” Orban said on his official Facebook page.
He added, “Here Brussels bureaucrats have no business at all, no matter what they do we will not let LGBTQ activists among our children.”
EU leaders have spoken out strongly against the law in Hungary, with Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the EU’s executive commission calling it a “disgrace.” She said the legislation “uses the protection of children as an excuse to discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation.”
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