Brussels – After Hungary and Bulgaria, Slovakia may also soon adopt new regulations to limit “LGBTQ+ propaganda” in schools. The bill, proposed by the ruling nationalist right wing, would aim to “protect children” from influences deemed contrary to no less than the national Constitution. But the case is already causing political turmoil within the government.
The legislative proposal, which consists of an amendment to the Education Act that would sharply define what is meant by “nontraditional sexual orientation” and prohibit its “promotion” in schools, was proposed by four deputies of the Slovak National Party (SNS), including leader Andrej Danko. Schools that violate the ban could face fines of up to €30 thousand.
The lawmakers justified the amendment by stating that “Slovak society is founded on traditional values that define marriage as the exclusive union between a man and a woman,” as referred to in Article 41 of the Constitution, and arguing that “the bill seeks to protect children and young people from influences that might conflict with constitutional principles.”
However, civil society organizations have disputed this reading. Martin Macko, director of the NGO Initiative Inakost’ said that the Slovak Constitutional Court “has already stated in the past that sexual orientation cannot be a reason for unequal treatment, and I believe it will do so again, even before the European courts rule.” Macko said he was concerned that the new law, if passed, would end up exacerbating the “radicalization” of young Slovaks, with an increase in bullying incidents against members of the LGBTQ+ community.
The SNS is a nationalist right-wing party that governs in Bratislava together with Premier Robert Fico’s SMER-SD and Peter Pellegrini’s HLAS-SD—an alliance that, in October 2023, cost them the expulsion from the Party of European Socialists (PES) and the Social Democrats’ group in the Europarliament (S&D). The bill sparked a political case, as the parliamentarians who introduced it in the House overruled, in fact, the Minister of Education, Tomáš Drucker (member of HLAS-SD), who denounced it as a “violation of the coalition agreement.”
If passed by Parliament, the law, as amended by SNS, would lead Slovakia to follow Hungary and Bulgaria down the path of erosion of civil liberties against members of the LGBTQ+ community. Budapest introduced in 2021 the banning of exposing school children to content that would promote “divergence from the personal identity corresponding to the sex at birth, sex change, or homosexuality.” A rule challenged by the EU executive before the EU Court of Justice. Last month, Sofia also adopted a similar law (banning the “promotion of LGBTQ+ people” in educational institutions), proposed by the pro-Russian Vazrazhdane (Rebirth) party, which in Strasbourg sits with the AfD Germans in the Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
