Orban ally arrested while fleeing Brussels sex party

A leading right-wing Member of the European Parliament and ally of Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, has been arrested at an illegal sex party in Brussels.

Jozsef Szajer, 59, a founding member of Orban’s Fidesz party, was injured jumping from a firstfloor window as he tried to flee before he was arrested with 24 other people.

Those detained at the party last Saturday were mostly men, including European diplomats. They were fined €250 (NZ$427) for breaking a coronavirus curfew and social restrictions at the party above a gay bar in central Brussels.

Police said that Szajer tried to claim European parliamentary immunity. The Hungarian MEP later resigned without giving any reason, but admitted attending a ‘‘house party’’.

The gathering was stopped when officers from the central Brussels police station – which was just a few metres away – surprised the participants, many of whom were naked. Police also found drugs, said to include ecstasy.

The Brussels public prosecutors office said a passerby saw a man ‘‘fleeing along the gutter’’ with bloody hands. ‘‘Narcotics were found in his backpack. The man was unable to produce any identity documents. He was escorted to his place of residence, where he identified himself ... by means of a diplomatic passport.’’

Those arrested included diplomats linked to the mainstream pan-European Christian Democrats and the conservative European People’s Party, which are groupings of MEPs. Szajer was the EPP’s chief whip and deputy chairman.

Orban’s government is facing protests against changes to the constitution to ban the adoption of children by gay couples. Szajer rewrote his country’s constitution to include the commitment: ‘‘Hungary shall protect the institution of marriage as the union of a man and a woman.’’