Speeches

Mr President, conflating homosexuality and transidentity with paedophilia is yet another episode of the Hungarian Government looking desperately for election topics to distract from corruption. It is yet another attack on fundamental rights, and as the EU, we have the tools to protect our values. But what is missing is the political will in the Council to use them. Signing statements at Council is not enough. The Council must address the deterioration of fundamental rights in Hungary by issuing concrete recommendations, including a call to repeal this misleading law. The new Hungarian law is not only homo- and transphobic: it is severely restricting the rights of children, rather than protecting them. Mr Orbán, you will never prevent one single young man or woman from being lesbian, from being gay, from being bisexual, transgender or intersexual, because this is an identity! So please stop talking about ideology. What you are doing is forcing young people to hide their identity, which often ends in suffering and in suicide. Rather than protecting anyone, you foster hate, intolerance and aggression towards vulnerable groups. And we don’t have to look far to see what happens when politicians follow Russia-style narratives on LGBTI people. On Monday, thousands of far-rightist hooligans violently disrupted Tbilisi Pride. The organisers had to flee for their lives, and journalists have been beaten up. Is this the direction we want for the European Union? Will we allow the Hungarian and Polish governments to use violence against people like me and others? No, the Council and the Commission must take bold actions now and give hope to people in Hungary and Poland. (Applause)