Several people in the Fidesz faction in the new European Parliament remained seated during the playing of the EU national anthem at the opening session of the European Parliament, The Guardian reports. juliasago media.
The European Parliament met on Tuesday for the first time since 6-9 June. New members were elected. At the start of the opening session, a string quartet played Ludwig van Beethoven's “Joy”, which is also the EU's national anthem.
In the video published by Gulyáságyú Media, it is clear that several people in the Fidesz faction, the Patriots for Europe group, sat and listened to the clip. The MEPs from the Dutch far-right Freedom Party led by Geert Wilders and the Austrian far-right Freedom Party, as well as Filip Turek, a representative of the Czech party Egeret and Otosok, who is known to be a neo-Nazi – and who we wrote about in more detail here – remained seated at the protest.
Among the Hungarian representatives, Tamas Deutsch did not join the demonstration, but Andras Györk, also from Fidesz, listened to the national anthem with his hands folded.
There were no similar actions in other factions, but some politicians could be seen in the hall talking on the phone, filming videos, and speaking during the national anthem.
This is the first meeting since the Hungarian government took over the leadership of the EU Council of Ministers on July 1. Although, as usual, the President's programme will be presented by the head of government or country concerned, in this case Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian Prime Minister, did not appear in Strasbourg.
By the way, Roberta Metsola was re-elected President of the European Parliament at the opening session. We previously wrote about what to expect at Tuesday's meeting here.
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