Europe

On March 18, 2025, the Hungarian Parliament passed legislation aimed at protecting children from assemblies that promote homosexuality. Although the amendment imposes general limitations on freedom of assembly, it is commonly understood as a ban on the LGBTQ+ Pride march, just ahead of the 30th anniversary in 2025. The new law amends the act of freedom of assembly (Act LX of 15), the act on misdemeanours (Act II of 2012), and the act on the use of facial recognition (Act CLXXXVIII of 2015). The new law also criminalizes attempts to circumvent this ban, making it a misdemeanour to organize, lead, or participate in such assemblies. Facial recognition may be used to prevent, thwart, investigate, interrupt, or sanction gatherings that fall within the scope of the prohibition.

The new law purposefully violates European human rights standards on freedom of assembly and LGBTQ+ rights, as well as fundamental values of the European Union, such as the rule of law and democracy (Article 2 TEU). From the outset, the Hungarian government made it clear that the measures mean to defy European standards (labelled as Brussels’ demands) in order to protect children from “aggressive LGBTQ propaganda.” In doing so, the Hungarian government presented an open invitation to European constitutional actors (including the European Commission) to address these new restrictions on freedom of assembly and LGBTQ+ rights in terms of a violation of democracy and the key commitment to the basic terms of Union membership as set out in Article 2 TEU.

The subject of these restrictions on political participation, the manner in which they were enacted, and their regressive impact call for a robust legal response grounded in the defense of democracy as a European value. The legal and institutional foundations for such a response already exist. It is now incumbent upon European constitutional actors to activate the mechanisms that protect democracy as a founding value of the Union in the face of a clear, frontal attack by a recalcitrant member state.