Luxembourg’s foreign minister has called for a referendum with Europeans on Hungary’s EU membership, after the Hungarian prime minister called for a referendum on the country’s anti-gay law.
“We should hold a referendum in the European Union to see if we want tolerance,” he said [o primeiro-ministro húngaro, Viktor] Orban in the EU,” Jan Asselborn told German weekly Der Spiegel, responding to the Hungarian Prime Minister’s initiative.
“I am convinced that the result will be a clear ‘no’,” the Luxembourg minister said in the interview.
Asselborn declared that in this way the controversy over the various disputes between Budapest and Brussels would be “finally resolved”.
The Luxembourg Minister acknowledged that there is currently no tool that would allow this type of advice to other Europeans, but considered that this should be considered.
On June 24, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, said Hungary “no longer has a place in the European Union” after the Hungarian Parliament passed a law banning speaking to minors about homosexuality and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) issues. and intersex) in schools or in the media in Hungary.
“For me, Hungary no longer has a place in the European Union,” Rutte said in Brussels after several European leaders, including the Dutch prime minister, signed a letter rejecting the controversial Hungarian law.
The expulsion of an EU member state is not enshrined in treaties, and it must be the government of a country to demand its exit, as the United Kingdom did after a referendum five years ago.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced today that a referendum will be held in Hungary on the anti-LGBTI law and called for voter support after the European Commission launched a violation measure against Budapest.
The announcement of this referendum is part of a legal dispute between Brussels and Budapest over the Law on the Protection of Minors, adopted on June 15, which prohibits, among other things, discussion with minors about homosexuality and transsexualism.
The European Executive, finding this law discriminatory, has initiated a violation case against Hungary, which can lead to a lawsuit in the European Court of Justice and, eventually, to financial penalties.
Since Viktor Orban’s return to power in 2010, Hungary has been condemned by the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights for reforms targeting justice, the media, refugees, NGOs, universities or minorities.
