Balázs Hankó, the minister of culture and innovation, said in Luxembourg on Thursday that Brussels sees sexual propaganda as more important than the protection of children, "but we don't agree with that."
Commenting on an opinion published by the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) saying that Hungary's child protection law infringed on EU law, Hankó said "Brussels launched a lawsuit against Hungary because we ... enshrined in the Fundamental Law our view that the protection of children is the top priority and we say no to continued gender activism in schools, kindergartens, the streets, public spaces and the media."
"While the CJEU sees gender propaganda as a fundamental value of the EU, the Hungarian government sees the protection of families as a core value," he said.
"The court is engaging all sorts of legal obstacles and legalese when it says that the benefits of media, advertising and electronic services are more important than the protection of our children," Hankó said.
Hungary's stance is clear, he said: the sexual education of children is in the hands of the parents, "and gender activists and sexual propaganda has nothing to do with it. The lawsuit continues; we will continue to stand up for our children and families," he said.
Hanko insisted that "Brussels and gender propaganda" had "overtaken" the CJEU.
He said Hungary was ready to "shoulder the legal costs" of the 16 member states which earlier joined the EC lawsuit, "because the protection of children comes before everything else".
"The interference of Ursula von der Leyen's European Commission, the European Parliament manipulated by Manfred Weber, and the 16 states that joined [the lawsuit] will be in vain. We are ready to do everything in our power for our children and normality," Hankó said.
He said that normality meant "that we can determine who we want to live with, that we say no to illegal migration, no to gender propaganda, and no to the fast-tracked EU integration of Ukraine, which are contrary to Hungarian socio-economic interests."