Despite pressure from the European Union, the Hungarian president is continuing his reform plans targeting LGBTQIA + people. Viktor Orban announced on Wednesday July 21 that a referendum on child protection would be held. This popular consultation is directly linked to a law passed in June prohibiting in particular the promotion of homosexuality and gender identities among minors. The Head of State therefore asked for voters’ support for this anti-LGBTQIA + law, after the launching of an infringement procedure against Budapest by the European Commission.
“Brussels has clearly attacked Hungary in recent weeks regarding the law” which prohibits the “Promotion” homosexuality among minors, said the sovereignist Prime Minister in a video posted on his Facebook page.
He then listed five questions, for example asking the Hungarians if they accept that the school “Talks about sexuality to their children without their consent”, if they support “The promotion of sex reassignment treatments for minors” or the “Unrestricted presentation to minors of media content of a sexual nature which affects their development”.
Mr Orban, who did not put forward a date for the holding of this referendum, asked the Hungarians to answer no to all the questions, presented as demands that the European Union wants to impose on Hungary.
Showdown with Brussels
The announcement of this referendum is part of a legal standoff between Brussels and Budapest over a law on the protection of minors, adopted on June 15, prohibiting in particular the mention of homosexuality and gender reassignment. with minors.
The European executive, which considers this law discriminatory against LGBTQIA + people, has launched an infringement procedure against Hungary, which may lead to referral to the Court of Justice of the EU, then to financial sanctions .
Since the return to power of sovereignist Viktor Orban in 2010, the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights have regularly condemned Hungary for reforms targeting justice, the media, refugees, NGOs, universities or minorities.
The green mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karacsony, reacted to the announcement of the referendum on Wednesday, saying it was a strategy to distract Hungarians from other issues. “I organize my own referendum” to ask Hungarians what they think of the management of the Covid-19 pandemic, of the installation “From a Chinese university” in the capital and “Sale of highways”, he quipped on Facebook.