Balázs Hankó, the minister for culture and innovation, said in Strasbourg on Tuesday: "It is time to launch a rule-of-law procedure against Brussels, too, because what Brussels is doing to Hungary lacks any legal basis."

The rule-of-law procedure launched against Hungary "severely discriminates against Hungarian university students, researchers and families", the minister said. "Manfred Weber, Ursula von der Leyen and the Tisza Party that supports them are striving for power, and their goal is to erase Hungarian identity -- but we won’t allow it," he added.

Hankó, who took part in a conference on Hungary’s child protection law in the European Parliament, said Europe’s competitiveness was based on strong nations, which were based on strong families, having children, and higher education, research and innovation that "answers real questions".

Hankó said the EU’s infringement procedure against Hungary over its child protection law was based on an expectation that "gender propaganda and sexual content should be let into Hungarian schools" and made accessible in the media to those under the age of 18. But, he added, Hungary would not comply because 3.5 million people expressed their opposition to "gender propaganda" in a 2022 referendum.

Hankó said it was good to see in Strasbourg that Hungary was not alone, with the MEPs of several other countries expressing their support for family protection and normality at the initiative of the Patriots for Europe group.

Concerning the exclusion of Hungarian students from the Erasmus programme, the minister said he had held talks with the deputy secretary general of the Council of Europe because "the EU’s discrimination also concerns the students of the Council of Europe’s 46 countries". "There are many researchers coming to Hungary from CoE countries, and they can’t be excluded," he added.