News of the resignation of Hungarian MEP József Szájer on Sunday was received with great surprise. Szájer claimed “tiredness” and weariness with political life, in a letter sent to the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli. But the real reasons only this Tuesday went public and are making the headlines of European newspapers, mainly Belgian.
József Szájer, elected to the European Parliament on the lists of Fidesz, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s extreme right party and the person responsible for the constitutional review that prohibits same-sex marriage in Hungary, was caught by the Belgian police on Friday on an “orgy” in a gay bar, at a time when Brussels has strict rules on social confinement.
The first reports that the Belgian police had interrupted an “orgy” with 25 people, in a gay bar in the country’s capital, began to appear over the weekend. The Belgian police confirmed that they had been alerted by neighbors to an illegal party at a bar, where they reportedly identified several diplomats and an MEP. Drugs were also found there. Only this Tuesday did it become known that the MEP is Szájer, the forerunner of the constitutional revision that limits marriage between people of the same sixth in Hungary. The politician, who has already resigned, is said to have been caught trying to escape from the site through a downspout.
In a statement made public this Tuesday, Viktor Orbán’s ally admits to having participated in what he calls a “private party in Brussels” and explains that when the police asked for his identification he presented himself as a member of the European Parliament. The MEP guarantees that he has not used drugs and has made himself available for a quick test, a procedure that the authorities have refused.
Invoked immunity
The Belgian police and prosecutors, however, have a different version. A statement from the Belgian Public Prosecutors’ Office, sent to the Euronews channel and quoted by the Belgian press, confirmed that it had identified a man who was trying to escape through the building’s downspout, being injured during the process. He also confirms that “narcotics have been identified in his backpack”. Without having any identification document in his possession, the man was accompanied by the authorities “to his residence where he identified himself as SJ (1961), through a diplomatic passport”.
The Het Nieuwsblad newspaper, on the other hand, quotes the police as saying that the authorities confirmed that they had interrupted an illegal sex party at a gay bar on Rue des Pierres, where “he found 25 people, almost all naked, involved in an orgy”. According to the newspaper, the Belgian police confirmed the presence of an MEP among the participants and who, when arrested, “invoked his immunity”. All participants will have been fined for disobedience to the measures imposed by fighting the pandemic.
József Szájer, 59, is married to lawyer Tünde Handó, a member of the Hungarian Constitutional Court. In addition to being an MEP and founding member of Fidesz, of which he became vice president, he is also responsible for drafting the 2011 Constitution, where Hungary imposes a ban on same-sex marriage. It should be remembered that in addition to this limitation, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s party is a well-known opponent of LGBT rights and also wants to prohibit adoption to same-sex couples.
Szájer has already gone public and apologized. The former MEP regrets “deeply violating Covid’s restrictions” and admits to having “an irresponsible attitude”. He also apologizes to his family, colleagues and voters, who also ask him to evaluate what he says was “a misstep” in the context of his “30 years of devout and hard work”.
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