The Hungarian government of Victor Orban has banned public events in support of LGBTQI+ rights including Budapest Pride, scheduled for the 28th June this year. Advanced surveillance technology has been authorised for use on the civilian population to identify anyone not respecting these bans, with promises of severe condemnations. The Budapest Police has now followed through in officially banning the Pride March, meaning there is no local or national opposition allowed.
This clearly infringes on Article 2 of the Treaty of the European Union which sets the values and freedoms of anyone living in the European Union, including the right to peacefully assemble as well as the prohibition of any type of discrimination. The way in which they have been introduced threatens the deep sense of what it means to be a free and equal person in Europe, able to express and be oneself in the public sphere without fear. Ultimately this is about democracy itself: whether we allow ‘democracy’ to mean setting people against each other, silencing minorities and creating scapegoats, or whether democracy is about all people having equal rights, dignity and voice.
If this initiative of Orban is not challenged by our European Institutions, then the fundamental values and sense of what it means to live in Europe are at risk. European Parliamentarians from the LIBE committee have called on the European Commission to urgently act to suspend the legislation in Hungary. 20 EU countries’ governments have joined forces and written to the Commission to demand urgent action. People are protesting on the bridges of Budapest every day, and civil society in Hungary and across the world have called for action. Citizens Takeover Europe is clear that the Commission must act as guardian of the treaties in the name of safeguarding the future of democracy in the continent.