The Hungarian government is tightening its measures against the LGTB + community, in the crosshairs of the ultra-conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban, with a record fine for a bookstore or a bill against transgender people.
The Lira chain of stores was ordered last week by the authorities to pay 12 million forints (32,000 euros, 36,000 dollars) for having sold “breaking the rules” the graphic novel “Heartstopper” that tells of the love between two high school students, popularized by a Netflix series.
“The investigation determined that the books” by British author Alice Oseman, “although depicting homosexuality, were being offered in the youth section, without being protected by airtight packaging,” the government explained.
A “severe action” justified by the desire to “protect children”, under a 2021 law that is the subject of an infringement procedure in Brussels.
According to this text, it is no longer possible to evoke “sex change and homosexuality” with minors.
This legislation already applies to romantic comedies or X-rated movies but until now it has reached few bookstores.
“Now the state is starting to apply it randomly,” Krisztian Nyary, creative director of the Lira company, told AFP. The fine is an unprecedented amount, he notes, deploring “obscure rules” and difficult to respect.
The situation is also tense within another publisher, Libri, which received a major sanction in May and then came under the control of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium Foundation (MCC), close to the government.
The Budapest director of Amnesty International, David Vig, denounced “outrageous” restrictions on rights.
“The government is using this issue in the run-up to the 2024 local and European elections to mobilize its base and divert attention,” he told AFP, against a backdrop of billions of euros in funds being frozen by the European Union and prices skyrocketing.
“SECOND CITIZENS”
Viktor Orban, a champion of “illiberal” values in Europe, has taken several controversial steps over the years.
The country of 9.7 million people has banned gender studies, the registration of sex changes in the civil registry and adoption by homosexual couples.
Parliament also voted in April a text that authorized the anonymous denunciation of those who “question” the constitutional definition of marriage, family and gender. But it was withdrawn in the face of criticism.
The government has just opened a new front against the LGTB+ community with the presentation of an amendment to exclude transgender women from an early retirement program.
“It is inconceivable that those who suddenly identify as women after years of working as men would take advantage of a system that is supposed to reward the key role of mothers in society,” the proposal reads.
The text is a response to a recent decision by the regional court of Veszprem (west) in favor of a transgender woman named Elvira Angyal who was authorized to access the retirement program. A “provocation”, according to the ruling Fidesz party.
The NGO Hatter, which launched the legal process, criticized in a statement a bill that “violates EU rules.”
According to the person in charge of Amnesty, “it sends the message that there are second-class citizens.”
On the occasion of the Pride March, which brought together thousands of people in Budapest, the capital, on Saturday, protesters expressed their dismay at the degradation of rights in this Central European country, which had been one of the most liberal in the region.
The situation is “catastrophic,” lamented lawyer Andras Szolnoki, 58. “This dictatorship denies equal rights” and promotes “a normality worthy of the Middle Ages.”
The day before, embassies and cultural institutions representing 38 countries had expressed their “concern about laws and political discourse (…) that contribute to the stigmatization of the LGBT+ community.”
