Anti-LGBTQ+ crackdown in Bulgaria: calls for sanctions against Sofia multiply

Brussels – The controversial law against “LGBTQ+ propaganda,” which Bulgaria’s parliament — the National Assembly — approved on August 8, came into effect with its promulgation by the president of the Republic, Rumen Radev, on August 15. And there are growing calls from various political and civil society actors to sanction the Balkan country, which, with the new rules, undermines the protection of minority rights and the uniformity of EU law.

The latest in chronological order were the liberals from Renew Europe: the MEP’s group “strongly condemns the signature by the president of Bulgaria of the bill adopted by the Bulgarian Parliament targeting groups on the basis of sexual orientation,” according to a post on X. “This law contravenes fundamental rights and freedoms recognized by international law” and also reflected in EU law. Therefore, Renew demands “a full investigation by the European Commission to defend firmly EU laws and values.” It implies starting those checks that can lead to possible infringement proceedings for failure to respect the rule of law. 

There had already been uprisings in the European Parliament against the regulations, even before they became law. For example, from the European Democratic Party (EDP), a member of Renew. The Lgbtq+ Intergroup called on the chair of the EU executive, Ursula von der Leyen, to “urgently condemn” the developments taking place in Sofia and on Equality Commissioner Helena Dalli to take action against a law described as “a direct attack on the Lgbtq+ community, in particular children.” On August 13, Dalli sent Galin Tsokov, Minister of Education and Science in the government, a letter requesting to clarify the measures he intended to implement. Dalli’s spokesmen said the Commission will “analyze whether the legislation is in line with EU law.”

Several Bulgarian civil society organizations called on the Commission to initiate infringement proceedings against the government. Human rights association Forbidden Colours, for example, called for a freeze of EU funds earmarked for Sofia in education and culture, such as the Erasmus+ program. The Ilga-Europe NGO has also strongly condemned the new legislation and urged Brussels and the chancelleries of other member states to do the same.

The rules at the center of the controversy were adopted by Bulgarian lawmakers by a broad majority (159 votes in favor, 22 against, and 12 abstentions) earlier this month, in a rare convergence among political parties in a country that is going through one of the most severe political crises in its history and will return to the ballot next October for the seventh time in three years. The far-right, pro-Russian, and Euroskeptic Vazrazhdane (Rebirth) party, which in Strasbourg sits with Germany’s AfD in the Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group, proposed the most controversial amendment group but found cross-party support in the House.

The government in Sofia has not yet followed up on a European Court of Human Rights ruling (the Strasbourg-based ECHR, a body not part of the EU architecture) from last year calling for legal recognition of same-sex relationships. The newly passed law goes in the opposite direction. It seems modeled on the essentially identical one passed by the Hungarian Parliament in 2021, which in turn was inspired by a similar one introduced in Russia in 2013.

In July three years ago, Brussels initiated infringement proceedings against Budapest for allegedly violating the Union’s fundamental treaties. In the case at the EU Court of Justice, the Commission is supported by some 15 member states (of which Italy and almost all Central and Eastern European states, from the Balkans to the Baltics, are not members).

Some €12 billion in cohesion funds earmarked for Hungary are currently blocked for failure to uphold the rule of law, as are most of the over ten billion in the Hungarian NRRP. Now, critics of Sofia’s new anti-LGBTQ+ law would like to see the same hard punch against the Bulgarian executive.