Members of the Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference expressed their “astonishment” over DK’s Budapest 7th District Mayor Péter Niedermüller’s remarks on “white, Christian, heterosexual men”. The body’s permanent council said on Wednesday that “Christians are being stigmatised because of their faith in Hungary in 2020.”
Fidesz MEP Calls Niedermüller’s Remarks ‘Racist’, ‘Indefensible’
In a talk-show, Niedermüller said that “[…] if we look at what remains if you strip away these hated delineations that we have listed: non-Hungarians, others, migrants, Roma, I don’t know what, then there is this frightening formation left in the middle: white, Christian, heterosexual men – and there are of course (some) women among them. That’s the family concept. And this is terrible, because if we look at what the so-called white nationalists are made up of all over the world: that’s it…”
Later, the opposition politician said that (government-critical, conservative) Magyar Hang misinterpreted his words adding that he doesn’t find “the group of white, Christian heterosexual men and women frightening. Of course, this is not the case.” To government-critical Index, he later clarified that he was talking about the government’s concept of family and he still thinks that what the government thinks of as family, namely that only white, Christian, and heterosexual relationships count, is frightening to him. He doesn’t accept this family concept as “it is unrealistic, and, for example, same-sex marriage and same-sex parenting don’t have a place there.”
The Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference‘s statement added that, to date, nobody had dissociated themselves from the remarks, saying this applied to the commercial TV station, Niedermüller’s party and interest associations. The Bishops’ Conference asks all politicians, regardless of their beliefs and alliances, to respect ethical norms and do their work to serve the public good, the statement said.
Meanwhile, Fidesz and government circles have arranged a demonstration against the DK politician. On Thursday, main pro-government opinion leader, Fidesz-founder and publicist Zsolt Bayer, who is famed for offensive writings, will be one of the main speakers.
Featured photo illustration by Noémi Bruzák/MTI