Her Minister of Justice Hungary announced that Budapest will appeal to the Court of Justice of the EU to defend an education law which, according to Commissiondiscriminates against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.
THE Minister of Justice Judith Varga said in a Facebook post that she filed a counterclaim in court because the Hungarian government will stick to its position that education is a matter for national governments to decide.
As the Athens Agency reports, the prime minister’s campaign Viktor Orbanwhich is directed against the community LGBT+ escalated in June 2021 when the parliament, dominated by his Fidesz party, voted a law that prohibits the use of educational materials deemed to promote homosexuality and transgenderism in schools.
The government has stated that the law aims to protect children and does not target the LGBTI+ community.
“As we have done so far, we will make every effort when it comes to the protection of our children,” Varga said, adding that support for the legislation was necessary and that further measures would be taken, without specifying what those would be.
The confrontation takes place at a time when Brussels suspended the disbursement of billions of euros in essential European funding for Hungary until Budapest implements reforms to improve the independence of the judiciary and fight corruption.
The European Commission referred Hungary to the Court of Justice of the EU for the law against the LGBTI+ community in mid-2022.
As it has stated, it considers the law to be in violation of the EU’s internal market rules, citizens’ fundamental rights and EU values.
In a speech last month, Orbán defended the legislation: “Gender propaganda is not only…rainbow talk, but the biggest threat to our children. We want them to leave our children alone… Such things have no place in Hungary and especially in our schools.”
From his side, The Council of Europe expressed, in its report, its “concern” about hate speech and “increasing xenophobia in political discourse” in Hungarywhich targets asylum seekers, Roma, Muslims and sexual minorities.
“Public figures, including politicians of all persuasions, are strongly encouraged to take a swift, firm and public stand against the expression of hate speech,” it says. the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, a body of the Council of Europe specializing in discrimination issues in Europe, in the presentation of this report covering the period 2018-2022.
THE Commission states that it is “concerned” about the adoption of laws that “seriously undermine” the rights of asylum seekers as well as LGBTI+ people, especially during the state of emergency imposed to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. In September 2022, the European Parliament adopted a report claiming that Hungary, led since 2010 by nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, is no longer a true democracy but a “hybrid regime of electoral autocracy”.
Source: News Beast
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