Hungarians Zsolt Petry and Péter Gulácsi, respectively football coach and goalkeeper, had never made waves in Germany, where they worked. But the policy of restricting the rights of homosexuals led by Viktor Orbán in their country of origin suddenly caught up with the two athletes and made them the symbol of the divisions of the Hungarians on questions of gender and diversity.
Goalkeeper coach at Hertha Berlin, Zsolt Petry, 54, was sacked on Tuesday April 6 for having “Makes statements that do not correspond[ai]not to the values of the club ” in an interview with a Hungarian government propaganda daily, Magyar Nemzet. In question: the way in which he criticized his compatriot Péter Gulácsi, 30, who, himself, is goalkeeper of RB Leipzig.
Facebook post
It all started on February 23 from a brief Facebook post. Above a photo showing him with a symbol defending homoparental families drawn on his hand, Péter Gulácsi, a Hungarian international who worked for Liverpool FC, makes a brief plea “For rainbow families”. “The more time you spend abroad or among different people, the more you realize that not being the same only makes the world more colorful and that the most important thing is love, l ‘acceptance and tolerance towards others’, he says, in Hungarian, before imploring: “Let us denounce the hatred, let us be more tolerant and more open!” “
“Living abroad for more than fourteen years”, the goalkeeper of the Leipizig club probably did not expect his message to be greeted by a dumpster of hatred and intolerance in his home country, which has become increasingly homophobic since his return to power in 2010, of Nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. At its initiative, the central European country has gradually reduced the rights of homosexuals, until it inscribed, in December, in the Constitution that “The mother is a woman, the father is a man” to ban adoption for same-sex couples. All this in the name of the defense of “Christian values” from Hungary, of which Orbán is a staunch defender.
Debate relaunched
Péter Gulácsi’s post was immediately sharply criticized in pro-government media and on social networks, to the point that the footballer has since preferred to take refuge in cautious silence. In Hungarian football, we keep our distance from politics all the more as Viktor Orbán largely waters his favorite sport with public funds. A football commentator for a TV channel close to Orbán was fired after defending the goalkeeper and saluting ” his courage “.
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