ADVERTISEMENTThe Hungarian Parliament adopted on Monday an amendment to the Constitution which allows the government to prohibit public demonstrations of LGBTQ+communities, a decision that lawyers and criticisms describe again towards the authoritarianism of the populist government.
The amendment, which required a two -thirds vote, was adopted by 140 votes for and 21 against. It was proposed by the Fidesz-KDNP coalition led by Populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
The amendment declares that children’s rights to moral, physical and spiritual development prevail over any other right than the right to life, including that of gather peacefully. Controversial Hungarian legislation on “child protection” prohibits the “representation or promotion” of homosexuality with minors under the age of 18.
According to criticism, Fidesz would use this amendment to prevent the organizers of the Budapest Pride from invoking freedom of meeting and freedom of expression if the police do not allow the event.
The benches of the opposition remained practically empty, but some deputies of the Momentum movement disturbed the vote by horny loudly and brandishing a banner on which we could read “You can ban us, but not the truth.”
Before the vote, which constitutes the last stage of the amendment, opposition politicians and other demonstrators tried to block the entrance to a parking lot in Parliament. The police physically dislodged the demonstrators, who had attached each other to each other using tightening necklaces.
The few hundred people who demonstrated outside, in Kossuth square, looked at the events inside on a projector and welcomed the results with the huae.
“I have the feeling that, whatever my strategic considerations, I must in one way or another take the lead and be part of the social resistance against this really terrible bill,” said a young man of 18 years.
“I think Hungary has already crossed the line that separates it from a democracy, even an autocracy, and that it has taken a bad direction,” added a young girl.
This amendment codifies a law adopted rapidly by the Parliament in March, which prohibits public demonstrations organized by the LGBTQ+communities, including the popular Pride de Budapest, which attracts thousands of people each year.
This law also allows authorities to use facial recognition tools to identify people who attend prohibited events, such as the Pride de Budapest, and can be accompanied by fines of up to 200,000 Hungarian drills (just over 546 euros).
In recent years, the Hungarian government has carried out a campaign against the LGBTQ+ communities and argues that its “child protection” policies, which prohibit minors’ access to any document mentioning homosexuality, are necessary to protect children from what it calls “WOKE ideology” and “gender madness”.
Its detractors believe that these measures hardly protect children and that they are used to divert attention from more serious problems with which the country is confronted and to mobilize the right base of Orbán for the elections.
