Brussels – Euro MPs are not giving up on Hungary. Magyar democracy is regressing dangerously, warn MEPs, under the relentless blows of the ultranationalist and pro-Russian prime minister Viktor Orbán, intent on turning the central European country into an illiberal state with marked authoritarian tendencies.
For the 30th time since 2018, the Strasbourg Chamber held a debate on the state of the rule of law in Hungary, in light of the progressive dismantling of democratic guarantees carried out by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Also making headlines today (18 June) was the authoritarian leader’s crusade against the LGBT+ community, the latest act of which involved the banning of the hugely popular Budapest Pride, scheduled for 28 June.
The ninth clampdown on civil rights—which follows an ad hoc ruling dating back to March—is all the more serious because it has been enshrined at the constitutional level thanks to the super-majority that Fidesz, the premier’s party, holds in the National Assembly (Hungary’s single-chamber parliament). There, in mid-April, the members of parliament approved the 15th amendment to the Fundamental Charter, since Orbán returned to power in 2010.
The Commissioner for Democracy and Justice, Michael McGrath, reaffirmed in front of the EU Parliament that “the EU is founded on freedom and equality and everyone should have the opportunity to be who they are, live freely and love who they want”. As for the Pride (from which “no one has anything to fear”), he welcomed the initiative announced yesterday by the capital’s mayor, Gergely Karácsony, to offer the parade the patronage of the city hall in order to circumvent the ban imposed by the government.
But “we cannot ignore the fact that this new legislation has already led to police decisions to ban a Lgbtq+ event and to a tug-of-war with the Supreme Court,” he added, which challenges the very foundations of EU law. The Commission is waiting for the Hungarian government to respond, reassured for the time being by the Court of Justice (CJEU) Advocate General’s opinion issued at the beginning of the month on the infamous 2021 Child Protection Act, which was judged to be a striking breach of fundamental rights and numerous European laws.
At the moment, McGrath explains, the twelve-star executive is examining the latest measures adopted by the Budapest Parliament, including those related to the use of biometric surveillance technologies by law enforcement agencies, in light of EU data protection and privacy regulations. And, he warns for the umpteenth time, he will not hesitate “to use all the tools at his disposal to ensure that EU law is respected.”
For Socialist group leader Iratxe García Pérez, “Orbán’s authoritarian regime has transformed power into an instrument of fear, censorship, and hatred.” The Spanish MEP urges the Commission to ask the CJEU for provisional measures “to immediately suspend the scandalous law on the protection of minors“, and provocatively invites the members of the College to parade with MEPs in Budapest in two weekends’ time. The Green co-leader, Terry Reintke, also took the same line, saying that “attacking the right of association means attacking human dignity.”
Also today, MEPs adopted by a large majority (405 votes in favour, 210 against and 36 abstentions) the evaluation of the last report on the rule of law in the EU, published by the community executive in July 2024. On that occasion, the then Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders explained that in Hungary we are facing “a true systemic problem.”
In its report, the hemicycle condemns the authoritarian slide of the Central European country, particularly regarding the persistent violations of fundamental EU values and the misuse of EU funds (approximately €19 billion for Budapest remains blocked in Brussels). And it urges the Council to proceed with the Article 7 procedure, which has been stalled at the chancellery table since the European Parliament itself launched it seven years ago.
“Democracy is founded on the separation of powers, the freedom of the press, access to justice and respect for fundamental freedoms,” recalled Portuguese socialist Ana Catarina Mendes, the chamber’s rapporteur on the rule of law dossier. “Without these elements,” she warned, “it becomes an empty formality and you open the way to authoritarianism.” And she also chastises Italy, where, she deplores, “journalists are spied on.”
That is why, says Mendes, “this Parliament cannot ignore the threats to our values.” Namely, those taking place in Hungary, where “the basic civil liberties of LGBT+ people are under attack,” where the judiciary is not independent and there is “a strong attack on civil society, taking away funding from NGOs (see the new regulations on so-called “foreign agents“, ed) and restricting the right to assembly.”
Carolina Morace, MEP of the 5 Star Movement, announced in a speech in plenary that “on 28 June I will be there. I will be in Budapest alongside the Hungarian LGBTQIA+ community. And I will not be alone: with dozens of MEPs and national MPs, we will walk alongside those who resist, those who fight to claim their rights, or simply to say, ‘I exist.'” According to the MEP, “banning Pride is the latest act in Orbán’s repressive strategy against fundamental rights, a shameful attack on the freedom of assembly, equality, and dignity of LGBTQIA+ people. An open challenge to the values on which the European Union is founded.”
After all, Orbán’s latest moves don’t come as a bolt from the blue. It was the strongman of Budapest himself who, in an infamous speech in 2014, had anticipated his desire to build a ‘illiberal state‘ in Hungary, as opposed to the liberal-democratic model, based on the protection of individual rights and civil liberties, the centrality of intermediate bodies, and the division of powers.
EU leaders and institutions had been warned, but still allowed the cancer of authoritarianism to metastasise. Now it seems that everyone has had enough: the European Parliament, the Commission and the Council, where the anti-Orbán front appears to be growing. The question now is whether it is already too late.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
