Viktor Orbán, the national conservative prime minister of Hungary, gave an answer on Monday to Mark Rutte, the liberal head of government of the Netherlands.

At the EU summit last week, Rutte suggested that Hungary should leave the European Union in a well-calculated emotional outburst if it did not want to accept the common EU values.

The occasion was a Hungarian law that opposes the representation of homosexuality and gender reassignment in text, images, film and advertising towards minors.

Stephan Löwenstein

Political correspondent based in Vienna.

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    Orbán's answer is: “There is no such thing as a unity of values, and therefore there is also no political unity.” According to his presentation, this debate is about the sexual upbringing of children.

    Liberals believed that children should be educated through “awareness publications” about heterosexuality, homosexuality, “the abandonment of the biological sex” and sex reassignment surgery, and that state institutions had a role to play in this.

    The “non-liberal democrats”, however, are of the opinion that sexual upbringing is the right of parents, “and neither the state nor the political parties, as well as NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and rainbow activists, may play a role in this without their consent”.

    Polls: majority supports the law

    As is well known, Orbán belongs to the latter group and seeks to gain a leadership role in it among like-minded people in Europe. Orbán sees the legal situation on his side. Because the current dispute is like the previous one about migration: “Migration is not a human right, and the way in which the child is sexually raised is not the child's human right either. There is no such human right. Instead, there is Article 14 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights on the right of parents to ensure that their children are properly brought up. ”His summary in a text published on Monday in several languages:“ If we want to keep the European Union together, the liberals must have the rights respect the non-liberals. "

    Surveys showed that around 60 percent of adults in Hungary shared the government position on this issue, says political scientist Ágoston Mráz, head of the government-affiliated institute Nezöpont, in an interview with the FAZ. The government has even higher approval of other issues such as migration. But it is precisely the rainbow issue that divides the opposition: 40 percent of potential opposition voters, especially in rural areas, think the government’s approach to this issue is good.

    Of course, the controversial Hungarian law is not only about sex education and the protection of young people from explicit sexual representations in general, but also specifically prohibits the “representation” of homosexuality. Couples should appear in films, but not homosexual couples, even if there are no sex scenes. With all the assurances of tolerance that Orbán also recently made, this could certainly offer an approach for a legal procedure.

    Rutte's suggestion that Hungary should leave the EU and the further moral condemnations of Hungary (“a shame”, said Ursula von der Leyen) have, however, shifted the debate “into the political arena”, as the liberal Hungarian weekly HVG writes. As if they hadn't learned from the past few years: the only way to win against Orbán "is by legal means". Otherwise, the issue did not reach the Orbán-critical media in the country as an “exit debate”. Everyone knows that it would be purely fictitious: approval of EU membership is stable and high in Hungary, even in European comparison.

    However, these surveys are often interpreted one-sidedly, says Mráz.

    The vast majority of Hungarians would like to belong to the European Community, but not necessarily to the EU in its current constitution.

    In this context, reform proposals should be seen that Orbán recently made in a Europe speech.

    The head of the Fidesz party, which left the European People's Party last year and has since been looking for a place in a new party alliance on the political right, had called for the dynamic of integration to be reversed.

    The goal of “ever closer unity” should be deleted, the role of the European Parliament restricted and that of the heads of government strengthened.

    The opposition's dilemma is also reflected in the fact that there are hardly any comments on the subject from their side. The left-liberal former prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsány is busy fending off an unprecedented smear campaign by Fidesz. The right-wing Jobbik party tries a middle ground by taking up Pope Francis' appreciation of the European founding father Robert Schuman. That shouldn't become an election campaign hit.