EU leaders to confront Hungary’s Viktor Orbán over LGBTQ+ rights

Sixteen EU leaders sign open letter vowing to fight discrimination of LGBTQ+ people before summit

EU leaders including Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel have signed a letter vowing to fight discrimination towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people, before an expected confrontation with Viktor Orban over a Hungarian law widely condemned as an assault on LGBTQ+ rights.

The letter published on Thursday does not mention Hungary explicitly, but the timing is no accident and the stage is set for a tense encounter between the Hungarian prime minister and many of his counterparts at an EU summit in Brussels where there is also a clash over a Franco-German plan to hold a meeting with Vladimir Putin.