Summary
Hungary passed a new anti-LGBTQ+ law banning Pride events and allowing facial recognition to identify attendees, sparking large protests in Budapest.
Protesters blockaded the Margaret Bridge over the Danube, blocking traffic and ignoring police orders to leave. The law, passed 136-27, amends Hungary’s “child protection” legislation, which already restricts LGBTQ+ content.
Critics call it an attempt to scapegoat LGBTQ+ people and distract from economic issues.
Despite repression, support for Budapest Pride is growing, with many vowing to attend in defiance of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s crackdown.
They are doing just that, Hungary has been sanctioned and is “paying” daily fines because of the decline of the rule of law in the country, specifically it was sanctioned for inhuman treatment of asylum seekers and refusing to process them. In practice, these fines mean that grant money is not paid out to Hungary.
This is Orbán trying to maintain power and distract from the fact that the country’s economy is collapsing from said sanctions. He looks set to lose the next election.
That said, as long as these abhorrences, like attacks on civil rights, workers’ rights and open corruption were not directly impeding broader European and specifically German policy, the EU was happy to essentailly fund Orbán to create a dystopic propaganda machine and destroy Hungarian democracy. In fact, the destruction of workers’ rights heavily favoured German car manufacturers.
The EU made this mess, but the EU is finally not impeding Hungary, the real, actual Hungary from cleaning it up. And I still maintain I’m staunchly pro-EU, just against business interests fucking it up for all of us.
Given how many voting cards Orbán gave to non-hungarian nationals, I’m not sure I would call Hungarian pollings élections anymore…
I do hope dearly he gets what’s coming for him, though.
That accouns for like 2-3% of seats. And it is also a good question who they will vote for this time around, I don’t imagine a lot of Ukrainian-Hungarians will vote like last time.
Gyurcsány was the spoiler for decades and the deciding factor almost every election. He is out of the picture. Finally after 35 years.
I had no idea! I’ll keep reading reporting on the elections, that bastard has ruined European politics long enough now.
If the election was today, according to a wide range of pollsters, Tisza would beat Fidesz by a wide margin and be able to form a government by itself, but would not get a supermajority to change the constitution. They want to, among other things, join the EU prosecutor’s office, introduce complete confiscation of all property for anyone caught embezzling state funds, introduce term limits for the Prime Minister, and reaffirm the alignment to the EU and NATO.
BTW, Telex is the largest independent Hungarian news site, and they do publish news in English as well.