The fallout from Hungary’s recent passing of anti-LGBT laws continues to ricochet around the Union.
This week a joint letter was signed by a group of EU leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who went a step further suggesting that Hungary quit the European Union altogether if it can’t comply with the bloc’s support of LGBTQ+ rights.
Diplomats reported that the exchange happened during a summit on Thursday in Brussels where Rutte asked the right-wing Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán why his nation didn’t just pull out of Union for good if they didn’t subscribe to its values saying: ‘If you don’t like it, there is an alternative: Leave the union.’
Time Magazine also reported that Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven also said to the other leaders that his country’s taxpayers would not contribute funds to a member state that didn’t respect human rights.
Luxemberg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel could barely contain his anger, tweeting after Rutte’s rebuke “Hate, intolerance and discrimination have no place in our Union.”
It doesn’t look like this is going to go away any time soon, making things extremely awkward for Hungary.