Xavier Bettel castigated Hungary in the European Union’s parliament on Wednesday, over gay rights.
Hungary, despite being a member state of the EU and having agreed to follow their inclusive laws, has been seeking to curtail discussions of homosexuality in schools and the media. In 2021, the country passed a law banning sharing content on homosexuality or gender transition in any media intended for minors, even educational material in school health programs. Russia began with a similar law, before moving on to make it illegal to publicly discuss LGBT topics at all, so it’s easy to see why that censorship makes people angry.
The EU has been pressuring Hungary to change the law, including challenging it in the EU’s Court of Justice as illegally discriminatory, which it is by EU standards. In joining the EU, Hungary agreed to follow those standards.
“If there’s anyone in this house who thinks that you’ve become a homosexual by watching the television or listening to a song, then you’ve not understood anything,” Prime Minister Xavier Bettel told legislators at the European Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg, France. “The most difficult (thing) for a homosexual is to accept themselves.”
Xavier Bettel, 50, married his husband two years after being elected Prime Minister of Luxembourg. He has always been outspoken about his sexual orientation, and has often used it to make sharp points to his opponents.
“I could end up in prison, face (a) life sentence. And soon maybe, in a European Union member state, I would only be able to talk about this in secret because I would be accused of perverting the young generation,” Bettel said in Parliament on Wednesday, comparing Hungary to nations like Uganda and Afghanistan, where homosexuality is a capital crime.
“I am ashamed … that some colleagues want to win votes at the expense of minorities. We’ve had that before in our history,” he said, in heavy criticism many took as intended to compare Hungary to political extremism like the Nazi Party.
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