Hungary blasted the European Commission Thursday for launching legal action against Budapest over an "anti-paedophilia" law seen as discriminating against the LGBTQ community.
"If the European Union wants to interfere in matters and laws covered by the constitutions of other countries, that could shatter the entire EU," said Prime Minister Viktor Orban's cabinet chief Gergely Gulyas in Budapest.
According to the commission's infringement procedure against Hungary over its so-called "anti-paedophilia" law, the bill breaks EU rules on rights to freedom of expression, as well as free trade and provision of services.
But Gulyas told a press briefing that the law concerned a national jurisdiction that the EU "clearly has no say in", and that its reasoning for the legal action was "more political than legal".
"We don't see any infringements on freedom of trade for example, these are absurd things... absolutely fishy arguments," Gulyas told reporters.
"Political motivations are presumably behind the attacks from Brussels," he added.
The Hungarian law, which includes a ban on the "depiction or promotion" of homosexuality and gender reassignment to under-18s, came into force last week...