The deputy speaker of the ruling SNS party, Andrej Danko, expelled opposition MP Lucia Plaváková (PS/RE) from a parliamentary session for promoting the LGBTI issue, while another SNS MP, Rudolf Huliak, added to the outrage by verbally attacking her.
During an ordinary session of the Slovak parliament on Wednesday, the leader of the hard-right ruling SNS party noticed stickers on Plaváková’s laptop, including a pro-LGBTI rainbow heart with the words “Zone of Inclusion“.
Plaváková, who is openly homosexual, was expelled from the parliamentary session after she refused to cooperate with Danko’s request to remove or cover the stickers he said were “advertisements.” Plaváková claimed her laptop had nothing that violated parliamentary rules.
Plaváková then raised an objection to her expulsion, which was backed by all opposition parties and the ruling party Hlas-SD (NI). Danko called Hlas’ vote the party’s “first political betrayal” in parliament.
“The coalition manifesto clearly states that the Hlas MPs could not vote for the opposition motion. There was a gross violation of this manifesto,” Danko told a press conference after the incident.
“I do not understand why they have such a weakness on LGBTI issues,” he added, defending his decision to expel Plaváková.
After Danko, SNS MP Rudolf Huliak supported her expulsion, claiming that “traditional values have been frowned upon” for a very long time. He then verbally attacked Plaváková, targeting her for her views on supporting abortion.
“This woman deserves nothing other than to be called a ‘suka‘ (translated as ‘b*tch’) in the sense that she does not respect the fundamental questions of life given to the human race by God,” said Huliak.
He concluded his speech by saying he “does not consider Plaváková to be a woman” and refused to apologise to her throughout the day.
Opposition united against hate
In response, all opposition parties in parliament – Progressive Slovakia (PS/RE), KDH (EPP), SaS and Slovensko – rallied behind Plaváková and jointly condemned her expulsion and Huliak’s comments, with the liberal SaS calling on Huliak to resign.
“Where have we fallen as a National Council and as a society if someone can refer to a woman as ‘suka’? Such vulgar and primitive statements have no place here,” said party chairman Branislav Gröhling.
Andrea Turčanová of the conservative KDH party said that even ideologically different politicians should unite against attacks on human dignity.
Plaváková herself called the attacks to be a personal attack on her as a queer person. “Mr. Danko was bothered by the rainbow heart on my laptop. This is absolutely outrageous. I don’t know if I should just erase myself entirely or what he has in mind,” she said.
(Natália Silenská | Euractiv.sk)
Source: euractiv.com
