Last Friday, Belgian police were forced to shut down what Belgian media describe as a gay sex party in Brussels, which had been organised in the midst of the health crisis. A Member of the European Parliament was among the participants.
Hungarian MEP Jozsef Szajer, a member of Viktor Orban's Fidesz party, admitted on Tuesday that he was arrested on Friday in Brussels during a gathering which violated local health regulations. The Belgian newspaper "La Dernière Heure" reported that the party was in fact a gay sex party. Prior to the publication of the news story, Szajer had announced his resignation from the European Parliament on Sunday, to general public surprise.
The MEP issued a statement on Tuesday, confirming that he was indeed present at the private gathering described in the Belgian press. Szajer stressed that he did not use drugs and offered the police to do a drug test on the spot, which the officers allegedly refused to carry out. He went on to say that the police stated that an ecstasy pill had been found but that he had neither anything to do with it, nor did he know who planted it or how. The MEP concluded his statement by apologising for breaking health regulations, admitting that it was irresponsible, and stating that he would accept the appropriate punitive measures.
About 20 people fined
The public prosecutor's office in Brussels has confirmed that the police, alerted by residents due to night disturbance, fined around twenty people on Friday evening for failing to comply with health regulations. According to reports by "La Dernière Heure", the gathering took place on the first floor of a building in the centre of Brussels.
The newspaper stated that it was in fact a sex party, in which a number of diplomats and one MEP took part. The public prosecutor's office did not wish to comment on the circumstances of the evening but confirmed that it had arrested a certain "S.J. (1961)".
However, the public prosecutor's office also confirmed that narcotics had been found in his backpack after he had tried to escape through a gutter. He was therefore also fined for possession of illegal narcotics. The 59-year-old MEP, a member of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), announced on Sunday his resignation and withdrawal from politics for personal reasons, to general public surprise, in the midst of the crisis between the EU and Budapest.
Several policies introduced in Hungary by Viktor Orban's nationalist conservative party Fidesz are in fact fought by the European authorities for their attacks on the rule of law. Szajer stated on Sunday that his resignation had nothing to do with the current "lively political debate" at European level. He stressed that in this debate, he fully approved and supported the position of the Hungarian government. Back then, he stated that the reason for his resignation was that he was tired of the political struggle, adding that he intended to continue his public life "on a longer-term intellectual level".
