Speaking at a plenary session of the European Parliament, Michael McGrath noted that "the right to peaceful assembly is enshrined in the Charter" of the EU, adding that "our union is founded on freedom and equality, everyone should be able to ... live freely and love whom they choose." He said nobody should be afraid to participate in a Pride march.

According to the commissioner, the Hungarian law was in contravention with EU law in terms of children's rights, respect for human dignity, the principle of non-discrimination as well as the rights to free expression and privacy. He also added that the Hungarian law was in breach of the bloc's fundamental values.

"We are a union of equality ... the European Union is ready to use all its tools to ensure that EU law is asserted all across our union," the commissioner said.

Kinga Gal, the head of the MEP group of Hungary's ruling parties, said the plenary was "not about asserting fundamental rights but a political witch hunt ... against Hungary which has been under way for years".

According to Gal, "the rule of law is being used to exert political pressure because Hungary has a sovereigntist, conservative government, which would not subject itself to Brussels' expectations, and will bravely promote the national interests as against the diktats of the mainstream."

"We will say no to war, we won't support Ukraine's forced EU entry and will protect our borders against illegal migration ... currently our greatest crime in the eye of the left-liberal camp is that we will stand up for the protection of our children against the gender lobby," Gal said.

Fidesz MEP Andras Laszlo said that the groups organising Budapest Pride "received hundreds of millions of forints in foreign support ... from the foundations of George Soros, other organisations of the Soros network and from foreign governments."

He added that while the freedom of assembly was a fundamental freedom and should be "especially protected", it "cannot come before everything else". "For us in Hungary the mental and physical health and development of children comes first," he said.

He insisted that Budapest's Pride marches "regularly feature people in sexually provocative or ideologically offensive attire" while others might wear "clothes not for the street". "We won't expose our children to all that," he said.

Klara Dobrev, MEP of the opposition Democratic Coalition, said the EP's right-wing parties "think they could lose votes if they talk about LGBTQ rights" adding that the European Commission's right-wing leader "does not dare to request immediate intervention to save Budapest Pride".

"What they often refer to as realpolitik ... is nothing more than cowardice."

Zsuzsa Borvendeg, MEP of the radical Our Homeland party, said "Hungarian society is not homophobic just insists on traditions values".

She said "making Hungary's amendments appear as a serious restriction of fundamental rights is absurd hysterics".

"The right to assembly is not unlimited," she added. "Practising the right to assembly cannot be more important than protecting our children against deviant behaviour and abuse," she said.

 

Source: MTI – Hungary’s national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent.

Since the goal of XpatLoop is to keep readers well briefed, right across the spectrum of opinions, MTI items are shared to ensure readers are aware of all narratives within the local media.

XpatLoop believes in empowering readers to form their own views through complete and comprehensive coverage. To facilitate this XpatLoop has a balanced range of news partners, as you can see when you surf around XpatLoop.com

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