Hungary’s Orban condemns EU federalism, LGBTQ ‘offensive’

BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Saturday renewed an attack on the European Union for conducting what he called an “LGBTQ offensive”, saying his nationalist government would protect the country’s Christian roots.In a speech in Romania, Orban – a long-standing critic of Brussels – also said he hoped next year’s European parliament elections would strengthen governments within the bloc that reject the “federalism” represented by Germany and France.

In power since 2010, Orban passed a law in 2021 banning the use of materials seen as promoting homosexuality and gender change at schools, citing the need to protect children from “LGBTQ propaganda” and thereby escalating a row with the EU.He has also clashed with Brussels over other issues including the rule of law, and reforms to Hungary’s media and the judiciary.

The EU is “either an empire or (individual) nations … We should not have any illusions: the federalists are trying to squeeze us out,” Orban said. “They openly wanted a change in government (in 2022) in Hungary,” Orban said, adding that the same was now true of Poland.

Orban added that “Another European process of the next few years, in which the Hungarians will have to place themselves, is the struggle between the federalists and the sovereignists. It [the European Union] is either an empire or (individual) nation. Here, we suffered a blow to the floating rib when our English friends left the European Union with Brexit and with that (we lost) the balance between the federalists and the sovereignists within the European Union. It used to be that the French and the Germans were on one side as federalists, and the English and us, the V4 (Visegrad Four), on the other side. If the English were inside the European Union today then we would not even have to learn the expressions such as the rule of law mechanism, conditionality, and economic governance – these would not even exist. The EU could only introduce these because the Brits left and us the V4 could not prevent it. But on top of it, the federalists launched an attack on the V4, and we can see the result: the Czechs went over the other side, Slovakia is wavering, only the Poles and the Hungarians are holding out.”

“We should not have any illusions: the federalists are trying to squeeze us out. They openly said that they wanted a change of government in Hungary”, said the Hungarian Prime Minister.