Clash Over Hungary’s Anti-LGBTQ Law Sparks EU Identity Crisis

Hungary is coming under fire from other EU member states over a controversial anti-LGBTQ law passed in the country, which will see the banning of children’s content considered to “promote homosexuality.”

This week, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte reportedly asked the prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, to respect LGBTQ laws or withdraw from the bloc altogether. The drama has unleashed a larger debate about what the EU should—or can—stand for, and whether it should take action against member states that aren’t adhering to the bloc’s core values.

“The message was pretty clear to Hungary, that they’re on the wrong side of the debate,” The Daily Beast’s Nico Hines said on Friday’s The World This Week. “I do think the discussion taking place in Brussels will have a long term impact on Hungary.”

How Putin’s Using Hungary to Destroy Europe

Though pressure from the EU could prove influential in the long run, Hines acknowledged that the bloc’s track record on holding states accountable for human rights violations isn’t too promising.

“Perhaps the EU will become an important moral force in the world, but I think at the moment, it’s not,” said Hines. “It can’t even stand up to really obvious bad guys like [Russian President Vladamir Putin],” he added, referring to European companies that collaborated with Russia on Nord Stream 2, a recently completed pipeline linking Germany to Russia. “The Europeans are too busy counting their money in the banks.”

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