The European Union executive escalated its legal standoff with Hungary on Friday by taking the country to the EU’s highest court over a restrictive law on LGBT issues and press freedom.
The EU had already been trying for a year to get Hungary to change a law that bans content that portrays or promotes homosexuality. The European Commission said it “discriminates against people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.”
“The Commission considers that the law violates the rules of the internal market, the fundamental rights of people (particularly LGBTIQ people) and, with respect to those fundamental rights, the values of the EU,” the statement said.
It was the latest episode in a long political battle in which Brussels perceives Prime Minister Viktor Orban as deliberately moving away from the pillars of Western democracy, while Hungary describes the European Commission as excessively meddling in domestic politics and imposes moral standards that it considers too liberal. .
Hungary’s right-wing ruling party last year banned the portrayal of homosexuality or gender reassignment in media aimed at children under 18. Information on homosexuality was also prohibited in school sex education programs, or in films and advertisements accessible to minors.
The ruling Fidesz party argued that the measures were intended to protect children from pedophilia. But the law sparked huge protests in the capital, Budapest, with critics, including numerous international human rights organizations, saying the measures served to stigmatize LGBTQ people and confuse them with pedophiles.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen immediately called the law “a disgrace” and was proud to counter it with legal proceedings. Friday’s decision was the latest step in the lengthy process.
“The Commission decided to take the case to court because the Hungarian authorities have not sufficiently addressed the Commission’s concerns and have not included any commitment from Hungary to remedy the situation,” European Commission spokesman Christian Wigand said.
At the same time, the commission has long criticized the curtailing of media freedoms in the member state and on Friday took Hungary to the European Court of Justice because it believes it forced a radio station because it refused to toe the line. of the government.
The commercial station Klubradio, which went off the air more than a year ago, was one of the last radio channels in Hungary to regularly feature opposition politicians and other critical voices during its news and talk shows.
Government critics say the station’s liberal stance led to a discriminatory decision by the country’s media regulator when it refused to renew Klubradio’s broadcast license.
The station has broadcast only online since losing its radio frequency.
“The [EU] The Commission believes that Hungary is violating EU law by applying disproportionate and non-transparent conditions to the renewal of Klubradio’s rights to use the radio spectrum,” the EU statement said.
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