Prompted by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s governing Fidesz party is pushing for a constitutional overhaul that could lead to a ban on the LGBTQ+ community’s annual march as well as the expulsion of dual citizenship-holders deemed to pose a threat to national sovereignty. Orbán, a repeated critic of LGBTQ+ people, vowed in recent weeks to crack down on foreign funding of independent media and non-governmental organisations in Hungary. A move by Orbán to clamp down on media he deemed to be unfriendly was not unexpected after he called for the elimination of the “corruption network that rules the entire Western world of politics and media” in an address to the Hungarian parliament late last month. At the time, he made clear that his government would “go to the wall” with the new laws.
On Tuesday, the Fidesz party submitted its proposed constitutional amendments, including one that would emphasise the need to prioritise the protection of children’s physical, mental and moral development above all other rights. The proposed new law could result in a ban on the annual Pride March by LGBTQ+ communities, an event that under the new legislation could be considered harmful to children, the protection of whose development would supersede the right to assemble.
Orbán is targeting the Pride March ahead of elections next year, when, with the economy just emerging from an inflationary crisis and a new opposition party gaining support, he faces the strongest challenge yet to his rule.
Another of the proposed amendments states that Hungarian nationals holding citizenship in another country can be expelled should they “pose a threat to Hungary’s national sovereignty, public order, territorial integrity or security.”
Moreover, the proposed constitutional changes contain a provision that Hungary will recognise only two sexes, male and female, something President Donald Trump recently called for in the U.S. According to the parliamentary website, another proposal is to ensure a constitutional right to cash payments in deference to demands by Hungary’s far-right which has proclaimed its lack of trust in banks.
