Fidesz MEP exposes Orban's anti-LGBTQ+ agenda

The sex lives of politicians is generally a private matter within the European Union. But not if they practice the opposite of what they preach. A founding member of Hungary's ruling nationalist Fidesz party and a close ally to Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose government has repeatedly targeted LGBTQ+ communities for exclusion, is now embroiled in a sex scandal.

Jozsef Szajer resigned as a member of the European Parliament on Sunday after admitting that he had broken pandemic rules to attend an illicit orgy in Brussels where mostly men were present. Belgian media have described the party, which took place in an apartment over a gay bar and broke regulations put in place to curb the coronavirus, as a "gang bang." Police stormed the apartment after neighbors complained about the noise and reportedly found more than 20 people in states of undress.

Media report that officers accused Szajer of attempting to flee half-naked — climbing out of a window and shimmying down a gutter and injuring his hand in the process. He didn't have any ID on him, but there were ecstasy pills in his backpack, which the police found when they arrested him. Authorities then escorted to his apartment where he presented a diplomatic passport. 

Szajer wrote in an open letter that political life was an "increasing mental strain" for him. On Tuesday, the reasons for his resignation became clearer when he issued a statement to the Hungarian media admitting that he had attended the gathering in Brussels.

A Fidesz lifer

The affair has shed a new spotlight on Orban's regime. In 1988, Szajer was one of the 37 co-founders of Fidesz and he is one of the few to still be politically active today, alongside National Assembly Speaker Laszlo Köver and the journalist Zsolt Bayer, who has penned a number of racist screeds. 

Szajer, who had been a high-profile networker in Brussels and played an important role shaping Orban's policies toward the European Union, is married to Tunde Hando, a prominent lawyer and judge who led Hungary's National Office for the Judiciary until 2019 and was instrumental in undermining the separation of powers to bring the country's judges under governmental influence. Though Szajer himself is not seen as a conspiracy theorist, there was never any doubt about his views. In Brussels, he often vehemently defended Orban's nationalist, ethnicist and Christian fundamentalist ideology.

Rumors spread through EU corridors that Szajer had even drafted the text for Hungary's first post-Cold War constitution, which came into effect in 2012. "Hungary shall protect the institution of marriage as the union of a man and a woman established by voluntary decision, and the family as the basis of the nation's survival," a passage reads.

Heightened homophobia

Homophobia has been a permanent part of Hungarian government policy since Orban took power in 2010. Over the years, the prime minister has made crude and derogatory homophobic comments. 

In recent months, however, there seems to have been more public homophobia. In October, Orban likened LGBTQ+ people to pedophiles. He said Hungary has "an exceptionally tolerant and patient approach" to the rights of queer and trans communities, but declared a red line: "Leave our children alone," he said, criticizing a new storybook for kids that featured characters from a range of identities beyond hetero- and cis-normative.

In November, the government introduced an amendment to the constitution to make it more difficult for same-sex couples to adopt by stipulating that "the mother is a woman and the father is a man" in parent-child relationships. In an attack on trans communities in May, a law was passed that prevents people from altering their gender or name on identity documents. 

With the latest round of anti-LGBTQ+ proposals still under discussion, Szajer's arrest comes at an inopportune time for the government. It also affects Hungary's policies toward the European Union. Orban has ramped up his anti-EU stance since standing with Poland to veto the bloc's budget and has been using arguments of morality to woo a domestic audience. 

In November, Orban continued his fight against the EU's Rule of Law Mechanism. If it were introduced, he said, the bloc would turn into a "second Soviet Union." He accuses the European Union of seeking to create a dictatorship based on political correctness — in which, he has said, what he considers traditional Christian values would no longer count.

Paradoxically, Szajer's arrest could put a pause to Orban's homo- and transphobic offensive in the short term. Even if it does not, the case is likely to be an embarrassment that could cost votes.