Europe’s highest court has declared Hungary cannot maintain policies meant to curb the “promotion of homosexuality” among young people.
Outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who was defeated in a national election earlier this month, propagated the policies in 2021 as “stricter measures against individuals convicted of pedophilia.” These policies have been expanded into sweeping bans on Pride events and depictions of homosexuality in media like films and TV.
But the European Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday that the laws violate Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union, which prohibits “discrimination based on sex or sexual orientation.”
“[The] law is contrary to the very identity of the Union as a common legal order in a society in which pluralism prevails,” the court wrote. “Hungary cannot validly rely on its national identity as justification for adopting a law which is in breach of the values referred to above.”
Orban lamented the ruling as a coordinated power play against the country following his conservative government’s defeat earlier this month at the ballot box, claiming the “Brusselian steamroller is already in motion.”
“Our patriotic government protected Hungarian children from aggressive LGBTQ propaganda,” the prime minister said on social media. “Now the Brusselian empire strikes back. We will not give up the fight for the soul of Europe!”
Opposition to Brussels and skepticism of the entire European Union was a cornerstone of the outgoing Orban government’s pitch to Hungarian voters.
The prime minister and his allies characterized themselves as archconservatives standing up for traditional Christian values within a secularized political bloc hostile to such ideologies. They point to Tuesday’s ruling as validation of their warnings.
“This decision is further proof that the EU has shifted toward a woke ideological framework, where gender ideology is no longer debated but enforced,” the prime minister’s political director, Balazs Orban, said. “In doing so, Brussels claims authority where none was granted, overriding the fundamental rights of parents to shape their children’s upbringing.”
It now falls to the next Hungarian parliament to act upon the ruling.
Incoming members of parliament are slated to take their oaths next month, and it is expected that Prime Minister-designate Peter Magyar will push for the legislature to address the anti-LGBT laws immediately.
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The Tisza candidate usually shied away from commenting directly on LGBT issues during his campaign against Orban. But upon his election, he declared that “everyone can live with whoever they love as long as they do not violate laws and they are not harmful to others.”
Magyar positioned himself as a softer, more EU-friendly alternative to Orban, focusing primarily on allegations of corruption within the Hungarian government and foreign interference by powers like Russia.
