The resignation of a scandal-embroiled politician is always going to make political waves and headline news. But what sets the case of Hungarian MEP József Szájer apart is not just the nature of the scandal he finds himself at the centre of, but also the manner in which it is being reported on by the media is revealing in itself.

Szájer, the most senior figure of Hungary's governing Fidesz party in Brussels, was caught by police attending what has been reported as a gay sex party in an apartment above a café in the Belgian capital on Friday evening. As well as trying to escape via the guttering of a neighbouring apartment, police found drugs in his backpack, something he denied in a statement to the Hungarian media.

The matter would be enough to sink any political career but in Szájer's case, the potential damage to the credibility of a Hungarian government pursuing staunchly anti-LGBTQ policies is even greater given the hand he has had in shaping the country's domestic politics.

Hypocrisy condemned

"Szájer is probably most well-known in Hungary as one of the persons who drafted the constitution and actually the constitution is one of the central pieces in this story because first of all, in 2011 when it was drafted, it banned same-sex marriage. Or at least it said it was unconstitutional," Aron Demeter, programme director at Amnesty International Hungary, told Euronews.

Legal recognition of gender changes was ended in May and more recently, the former MEP has been instrumental in drafting proposed new amendments to the civil code, driven by Viktor Orbán's right-wing government which seeks to enshrine "Christian values". One amendment, which defines the relationship between a parent and child as "the mother is a woman and the father is a man," would amount to a constitutional ban on same-sex adoption.

"That this is something that Szájer affected and he is the most senior figure of the Fidesz government in Brussels, makes this story even more absurd," Demeter said.

Szájer's actions, and those of the Fidesz government, have been called hypocritical in Brussels.

"He is enjoying the freedom of LGBTI community here in Brussels and at the same time, his party is condemning the LGBTI community back in Hungary," French MEP Manon Aubry told Euronews. "He was even one of the main writers of the constitution that criminalises that community in Hungary".

However, the full facts behind Szájer's fall from power have arguably been stifled in Hungary, thanks in no small part to strict government control of the media landscape which has been years in the making. Read more via EuroNews