{"id":424596,"date":"2025-04-17T13:32:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T11:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/04\/17\/mep-libe-budapest-democrazia-ungheria\/"},"modified":"2025-04-17T15:05:28","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T13:05:28","slug":"meps-visiting-budapest-urge-hungary-to-return-to-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/04\/17\/meps-visiting-budapest-urge-hungary-to-return-to-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"MEPs visiting Budapest urge “Hungary to return to democracy”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Let the EU Court of Justice<\/strong> intervene to stop the erosion of democracy in Hungary<\/strong>. This is the appeal made by a group of MEPs<\/strong> at the end of their mission to the Hungarian\u00a0capital, where just a few days ago, street protests erupted\u00a0against yet another civil rights crackdown<\/strong> wanted by Viktor Orb\u00e1n, the authoritarian premier who recently amended the Constitution to restrict the freedoms of the LGBTQ+ community.<\/p>\n

The Civil Liberties, Justice, and Home Affairs (LIBE)<\/strong>\u00a0 Parliamentary Committee delegation\u00a0concluded its visit to Budapest<\/strong> yesterday (April 16), during which it was able to observe directly from the field the deterioration of democratic norms<\/strong> in the central European country by meeting with both civil society representatives and government officials.<\/p>\n

Taking stock of the three-day mission, Dutch Greens MEP\u00a0Tineke Strik<\/strong> (Strasbourg House rapporteur on the rule of law in Hungary) warned that the developments she witnessed are going “rapidly in the wrong direction.” <\/strong>She added: “We long for this country to become a true democracy<\/strong> again because we think Hungarian citizens should enjoy the same rights and values as all of us in the EU.”<\/p>\n

\n

Our mission to Budapest learned us about the ever deepening rule of law crisis in Hungary. Sad about the further crack down on judges, journalists, LGBTIQ community, NGO\u2019s.<\/p>\n

But deeply motivated to fight for their rights. https:\/\/t.co\/0KUEDf1zh6<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/O7LiPWnzUH<\/a><\/p>\n

– Tineke Strik (@Tineke_Strik) April 16, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The team, consisting of five MEPs<\/strong>, had arrived in the Hungarian capital on April 14 — the very day that the National Assembly<\/strong> (the Hungarian single-chamber legislature) approved<\/a> a controversial constitutional amendment<\/strong> allowing the government to ban any demonstration in support of the LGBTQ+<\/strong> community, starting with Budapest Pride<\/strong>, while also giving law enforcement agencies freedom\u00a0to use biometric surveillance<\/strong> technologies such as facial recognition.<\/p>\n

After witnessing the mass\u00a0protests against the Assembly’s vote, European Parliamentary\u00a0members urged\u00a0the Commission to refer to the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU)\u00a0<\/strong>to suspend the effect of the new rules pending “further legal action.” At this time, Strik warned, organizers and participants of the highly popular event “risk being indicted for peacefully marching in support of diversity, equality, and freedom.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to\u00a0Polish socialist Krzysztof \u015amiszek<\/strong>, the regulatory changes are helping create “a very hostile atmosphere” for the LGBTQ+<\/strong> community, which is already resulting in an “increase in physical and violent attacks and other types of hate crimes<\/strong>.” His fellow Christian Democrat Michal Wawrykiewicz<\/strong> pointed to an “indisputable deterioration of the situation” in the country, where there is now “an open denial of the rule of law<\/strong>.” Former Belgian premier Sophie Wilm\u00e8s<\/strong> expressed strong concern about the executive’s pressures on the few remaining independent media<\/strong>, explaining that the capture of information by the government of Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong> has made smear campaigns “the new norm” in Hungary.<\/p>\n

\"Viktor<\/a>
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n (photo: Simone De La Feld)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All MEPs also denounced the “very aggressive rhetoric” of state officials toward the LIBE<\/strong> delegation, which did not include members of the radical right<\/strong> in the Strasbourg hemicycle (Conservatives, Patriots – of which Fidesz<\/i>, the governing party, is a member – and Sovereignists). On the streets of the capital were\u00a0propaganda posters<\/strong> with the faces of Strik and other European politicians<\/strong> who are allegedly conspiring behind the scenes to sabotage Hungary<\/strong>. These include the head of the EU executive, Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>, and the leader of the European People’s Party, Manfred Weber<\/strong>, who expelled Fidesz <\/i>from the ranks of the Christian Democrats in 2021 and now does not miss an opportunity<\/a> to lash out at the former ally.<\/p>\n

On April 15, while the mission was still in progress, the White House announced the revocation of sanctions<\/strong> against Antal Rog\u00e1n<\/strong>, a close associate of the Hungarian\u00a0premier, calling them “inconsistent with US foreign policy interests.” Joe Biden<\/strong> imposed<\/a> restrictive measures in the last days of his presidency in\u00a0January for alleged corruption<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

After all, the health of Hungarian democracy<\/strong> has been the subject of intense political debate in the EU for several years, with the European Parliament<\/strong> always standing among the staunchest critics of Orban’s authoritarianism<\/strong> (which he\u00a0proudly defines as “illiberalism<\/strong>“). In recent times, the intolerance of the chancelleries<\/strong> toward the strongman of Budapest\u00a0seems to have grown<\/a>,\u00a0mainly because of his closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/strong>, which often results in vetoes (even temporary) on both sanctions to Moscow <\/strong>and support to Kyiv<\/strong>, hampering the action of the 27 member states.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the European Parliament’s LIBE Committee denounced the backwardness of the Central European country, ruled authoritatively by Viktor Orb\u00e1n since 2010, on the rule of law and fundamental freedoms. They urged the Union to take action against discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":424593,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[27048,28910,26302,30916,30669],"class_list":["post-424596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-democracy-en","tag-commissione-libe-en","tag-state-of-right-en","tag-tinekebow-and","tag-viktor-orban-en-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424596"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":424623,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424596\/revisions\/424623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}