Patrik and Zsolt are activists and YouTubers representing LGBTQ+ people in Hungary, where a new 'anti-paedophile' law means it is illegal to educate about or to promote LGBTQ+ issues to under-18s. This law follows earlier restrictions by Viktor Orbán's government on trans rights and adoption by gay parents. Patrik and Zsolt think gay people are the latest scapegoats for the governing Fidesz party, but Budapest's Pride parade is an opportunity to protest against the new laws and to rally support.
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The revolt against liberalism: what’s driving Poland and Hungary’s nativist turn? – podcast
For the hardline conservatives ruling Poland and Hungary, the transition from communism to liberal democracy was a mirage. They fervently believe a more decisive break with the past is needed to achieve national liberation. By Nicholas Mulder
Continue reading...The Guardian view on Fortress Europe: a continent losing its moral compass
The increasingly draconian approach to irregular migration betrays the spirit of the 1951 refugee convention
Seventy years ago, the 1951 UN refugee convention established the rights of refugees to seek sanctuary, and the obligations of states to protect them. Increasingly, it seems that much of Europe is choosing to commemorate the anniversary by ripping up some of the convention’s core principles.
So far this year, close to 1,000 migrants have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean, more than four times the death toll for the same period in 2020. Many will have been economic migrants. Others will have been fleeing persecution. Increasingly, Europe does not care. All were “irregular”. And all must be discouraged and deterred through a strategy of cruelty.
Continue reading...Thousands join Budapest Pride march to protest against anti-LGBTQ law – video
Hungarians joined the annual Budapest Pride march to support LGBTQ people and oppose a law that limits teaching about homosexuality and transgender issues in schools. Organisers said in a statement the rally would show opposition to 'power-hungry politicians' and reject intimidation of LGBTQ people
Continue reading...Thousands march in Budapest Pride to oppose anti-LGBTQ law
Demonstrators say law that bans teaching of issue in schools is causing division in Hungary
Thousands of Hungarians have joined the annual Budapest Pride march to support LGBTQ people and protest against a law that limits teaching about homosexuality and transgender issues in schools.
Hungary’s nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, in power since 2010, has introduced social policies that he says aim to safeguard traditional Christian values from western liberalism, stoking tensions with the EU.
Continue reading...Budapest Pride march is a protest against anti-gay laws, say organisers
Hungary’s LGBT community expects high turnout for march on Saturday marking end of Pride month
Saturday’s Pride march in Budapest will be “a celebration, but also a protest”, organisers have said, as Hungary’s LGBT community prepares to rally in defiance of an escalating anti-gay campaign by the country’s government.
Johanna Majercsik, one of the organisers of Pride month in Budapest, which culminates with the march, said she expected to see many more in attendance than the roughly 20,000 marchers who attended the last Pride march in the city, two years ago.
Continue reading...EU parliament condemns Hungary’s anti-LGBT law
Resolution is passed to launch legal action, but Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán remains defiant
The European parliament has denounced a Hungarian law that bans gay people from appearing in educational materials or on primetime TV as “a clear breach” of its principles of equality.
In a resolution voted in Strasbourg on Thursday by a resounding majority, MEPs condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the Hungarian law as “a clear breach of the EU’s values, principles and law”, while urging the European Commission to launch a fast-track legal case against Viktor Orbán’s government.
Continue reading...EU urged to suspend funds to Hungary over ‘grave breaches of the rule of law’
Action follows Viktor Orbán passing law banning LGBT content in schools and mishandling of EU funds
Ursula von der Leyen is being urged to suspend EU funds to Hungary to force Viktor Orbán to address concerns over politicised courts and corruption.
MEPs who work on the European parliament’s budgetary control committee are calling on the European Commission president to use a newly created EU law to freeze payments to Hungary for “grave breaches of the rule of law”.
Continue reading...Fractious EU summit rejects Franco-German plan for Putin talks
Bloc to explore sanctions instead, as gathering also holds ‘emotional’ debate over Hungary’s LGBT laws
A Franco-German plan to restart talks with Vladimir Putin has been rejected at a fractious EU summit that resulted in a decision to explore economic sanctions against Russia instead.
The two-day gathering in Brussels also included an “emotional” debate over LGBT rights in Hungary, as EU leaders confronted Viktor Orbán over a law that will ban gay people from being shown in educational and entertainment content for minors.
Continue reading...Hungary’s LGBT protests and Juneteenth Day: human rights this fortnight – in pictures
A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms from China to Colombia
Continue reading...Budapest Pride goes ahead in solidarity against Hungary’s anti-LBGTQ+ laws
As oppressive legislation passed by Viktor Orbán’s government, activists plan procession to ‘show LGBT people they are not alone’
For the second year in a row, Covid has succeeded in doing what many had once thought impossible: toning down Pride celebrations. From Berlin to Brighton, Toronto to San Francisco, parades have been cancelled or put online, floats forgotten and parties swapped for quieter, often more reflective events.
But in Budapest, where LGBTQ+ activists are engaged in a near-existential fight against the rightwing government of Viktor Orbán, the stakes were too high for Pride to take a back seat.
Continue reading...Opposition forces Orbán into U-turn over Chinese campus plan in Budapest
With a general election due next year, Hungary’s government has put the divisive project in the capital’s heart on hold
Protests against the construction of a Chinese university in Budapest have energised the Hungarian opposition ahead of elections next year, and forced the government into a rare U-turn.
Outrage at plans to build a campus of Shanghai’s Fudan University became a rallying cry for the opposition, drawing thousands to protest in defiance of government regulations
Continue reading...ECJ rejects Hungarian case against MEPs’ vote to pursue sanctions
Hungary fails in attempt to argue abstentions should have been taken into account in 2018 vote
The European court of justice has dismissed an attempt by Hungary to reverse the outcome of a vote by MEPs that for the first time in the EU’s history triggered a process that could lead to a country being stripped of voting rights in Brussels.
A resolution in 2018 raising concerns over the independence of Hungary’s judiciary, the functioning of its constitution and attacks on freedoms of association, religion and expression passed by a majority of votes cast.
Continue reading...EU’s southern states step up calls for ‘solidarity’ in managing mass migration
Greece, Italy, Spain, Cyprus and Malta say burden has to be shared more justly with other EU partners
Europe’s southern states have stepped up calls for solidarity in managing mass migration to the bloc saying the burden has to be shared more justly with other EU partners.
Highlighting the deep divisions over the issue, politicians from countries along Europe’s Mediterranean rim said a proposed migration pact fell far short of resolving the crisis equitably.
Continue reading...Hungary’s Fidesz party to leave European parliament centre-right group
Rightwing party’s move comes after European People’s party changed its internal rules on excluding members
Hungary’s ruling rightwing Fidesz party has said it will leave the main centre-right political grouping in the European parliament after the European People’s party (EPP) voted to change its internal laws on excluding members.
The EPP’s 180 members, many of whom have campaigned for the expulsion of Fidesz, which they accuse of weakening Hungary’s democracy and curbing media and other freedoms, voted by 148 to 28 in favour of the new rules, with four abstentions.
Continue reading...Budapest Black Lives Matter artwork sparks rightwing backlash
Officials from Viktor Orbán’s rightwing party stoke outrage over two-week installation
It will be only one metre high, and will be on display for just two weeks. Nevertheless, a planned art installation dedicated to the theme of Black Lives Matter is causing uproar in Budapest, where the rightwing, nationalist government of Viktor Orbán has taken aim at the movement and all it represents.
The installation won a recent tender for public art in Budapest’s ninth district, an area on the city’s Pest side that combines streets of grand turn-of-the-century buildings with communist-era social housing projects.
Continue reading...As Poles and Hungarians, we urge the EU to stand firm on the rule of law | Máté Varga
Democracy is seriously under threat in our countries. The EU must stand up to the bullying tactics of Orbán and Morawiecki
As European leaders gather in Brussels this week municipal buildings and monuments in Warsaw and Budapest have been lit up in blue. The illuminations, organised by campaign groups and the mayors of these cities, are meant as a powerful reminder of the dark path ahead if the EU stands aside while the rule of law is extinguished in Poland and Hungary. The lights are a call for solidarity with the millions of citizens of both countries who argue that EU funding should be conditional on their governments upholding these fundamental rights.
The release of €1.8tn in EU funds for rebuilding after the pandemic and the EU’s 2021-2027 budget is at stake. So far agreement has been derailed by Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Poland’s Mateusz Morawiecki because of their unwillingness to accept that membership of the EU depends on upholding democratic values.
Continue reading...Hungary’s rightwing rulers downplay MEP ‘gay orgy’ scandal amid hypocrisy accusations
József Szájer has boasted of rewriting constitution to define marriage as heterosexual institution
Hungary’s rightwing ruling party has tried to brush off accusations of hypocrisy over a “gay orgy” scandal in Brussels, involving one of its inner circle, the MEP József Szájer.
The prime minister, Viktor Orbán, and his ruling Fidesz party have enacted a range of legislation over the past decade infringing on LGBT rights, and Szájer himself boasted of personally rewriting Hungary’s constitution to define marriage as a heterosexual institution in 2011.
Continue reading...Hungarian government mounts new assault on LGBT rights
Constitutional amendment proposed to enshrine defence of so-called ‘Christian values’
Moments before Hungary entered a second coronavirus lockdown on Wednesday, the far-right government signalled its intention to pass a range of new legislation, including to make it harder for opposition political parties to join forces and to change the constitution to enshrine the defence of so-called “Christian values”.
Opposition politicians criticised both the substance and timing of the moves.
Continue reading...End of Trump era deals heavy blow to rightwing populist leaders worldwide
As Biden’s victory sinks in across Brazil, Hungary and elsewhere, dreams of a rightwing global crusade appear to be fading
As the Donald Trump era draws to a close, many world leaders are breathing a sigh of relief. But Trump’s ideological kindred spirits – rightwing populists in office in Brazil, Hungary, Slovenia and elsewhere – are instead taking a sharp breath.
The end of the Trump presidency may not mean the beginning of their demise, but it certainly strips them of a powerful motivational factor, and also alters the global political atmosphere, which in recent years had seemed to be slowly tilting in their favour, at least until the onset of coronavirus. The momentous US election result is further evidence that the much-talked-about “populist wave” of recent years may be subsiding.
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