An MEP has given an unsettling warning regarding the Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán and his anti-LGBTQ+ law.
While attending Saturday’s (24 July) Budapest Pride March, Irish MEP Maria Walsh opened up about the archaic anti-LGBTQ+ law stating: “Enough has to be enough”.
“We can’t keep just talking about the buzzword of solidarity without actually implementing it in the rooms and around the tables that matter the most,” she told Sky News.
“Orbán, he’s just starting. He’s built a foundation that he can stand on and now we’re going to start seeing more and more rollbacks of rights, and then how can I wear a European mask or flag and say ‘Everybody’s equal’, because that’s not the case.”
Walsh was one of the thousands of LGBTQ+ activists and allies that lined the streets of Hungary’s capital to protest the growing anti-LGBTQ+ presence in the country.
Last month, lawmakers passed legislation that bans “content promoting gender change or homosexuality” within the school curriculum.
The bill has widely been compared to Russia’s “gay propaganda” law, which was passed in 2013, that bans disseminating “propaganda on nontraditional sexual relations” among Russians.
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The European Commission has since announced plans to take legal action against Hungary.
MEPs called the legislation “a clear breach of the EU’s values, principles and law” and last week urged the European Commission to pursue a legal case against Orbán’s government.
459 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted in favour of the resolution, with 147 against and 58 abstaining in Strasbourg. If the case is brought to the European Court of Justice, Hungary could face financial penalties.
Ursula Von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, called the law “disgraceful” in a statement.
“This law uses the protection of children, to which we are all committed, as an excuse to severely discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation. This law is disgraceful.”
Even with the threat of legal action, Orbán claims that the anti-LGBTQ+ law has been put in place to “protect” children.
Recently, he announced that the Hungarian government will be holding a referendum for the controversial law.
“LGBTQ+ activists visit kindergartens and schools and conduct sexual education classes. They want to do this here in Hungary as well,” he stated in a Facebook video on Wednesday (21 July).
Related: Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán to hold referendum on anti-LGBTQ+ law.
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