Portugal and 16 EU countries ask Hungary to lift the ban on the LGTBI march

Portugal and 16 other Member States of the European Union today called on the European Commission to act and to use the legal instruments available to compel Hungary to lift the ban on the LGTBI+ march scheduled for June.  

The statement, signed by Portugal, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Slovenia, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and Sweden, was made public today by the Dutch government, the author of the initiative.

This issue is on the agenda of today’s General Affairs Council in Brussels, which includes a point on the procedure provided for in Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union, where countries considered the possibility of withdrawing Budapest’s voting rights in the European Union due to various violations of the rule of law.

The Hungarian police banned, on Monday, a demonstration against homophobia and transphobia scheduled for June 1, invoking the controversial law that prohibits LGBT+ marches under the pretext of protecting minors.

This is the first time that the Hungarian police have resorted to the law approved by Viktor Orbán’s government in March, which prohibits meetings that promote gender change or homosexuality.

The legislation has been criticized by the European Union as an attack on the rights of minorities.

In the statement, the signatory countries express deep concern over the recent legislative and constitutional changes that they accuse of violating the fundamental rights of LGBTIQ+ people, approved by the Hungarian Parliament on March 18 and April 14, 2025.

Under the pretext of protecting children, these legislative changes also allow for fines to be imposed on participants and organizers of these events and the use of facial recognition software.

“We are concerned about the implications of these measures for freedom of expression, the right to peaceful assembly, and the right to privacy,” the signatories of the statement state.

In the same document, the 17 countries also state that they are “deeply” alarmed by the political developments in Hungary, which they emphasize contradict the fundamental values of human dignity, freedom, equality, and respect for human rights, as defined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union.

The document made public today directly calls on the Hungarian Executive to review these measures in order to ensure respect for and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all citizens, thus fulfilling international obligations.