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Hungary Protects Children from Ideological Colonization …and EU Bureaucrats Declare War

Hungarian schoolchildren. Photo: EVZARO (CC BY-SA 3.0)
PRI Staff

On June 15th, after weeks of deliberation, Hungary’s National Assembly approved a bill called the Anti-Pedophilia Act.  In its original form, it aimed to increase penalties for sex crimes involving minors, create a national database of sex offenders, and ban culprits from certain professions.  These penalties would apply for various periods of time depending on the severity of the case. 

A week before the bill was voted on, Prime Minister Viktor Orban revised the legislation to include additional protections for children, particularly geared to safeguard them against LGBTQ+ ideology. The revised bill prohibits content, including TV and radio ads, that showcase homosexuality or sex reassignment from being shown to minors.  It also prohibits school sex educators promoting homosexuality or sex reassignment, and mandates that sex education classes only be taught by registered organizations. To say that the vote in the National Assembly was overwhelmingly in favor is an understatement.  The new legislation was approved by the representatives of the Hungarian people in a 157-1 vote. 

Outside of Hungary, however, the new legislation met with a different reception.  The legislation—prohibition on propagandizing children—has aroused a storm of diplomatic aggressions and threats from other EU leaders. To date, the leaders of more than half of the countries in Europe have weighed in against Hungary’s decision and have jointly signed a declaration condemning the legislation. Some of them have spoken the harshest words ever heard against a country in the history of the EU.

Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte was especially critical of the new legislation, claiming that Hungary no longer has any place in the European Union.  The Dutch leader made his comments in Brussels this week while attending an EU summit.  “As far as I am concerned, then there is nothing left for them in the EU,” Rutte said.  “The goal is to force Hungary to its knees regarding this issue. They have to understand that they are either part of the European Union and the community of shared values we are,” Rutte added, Euronews reports. Rutte had spoken to reporters before the summit and made similar comments saying that Hungary has “nothing more to do in the European Union” and that the new law forbidding LGBT propaganda in schools meant the country should be removed from the EU.  

Of course, Rutte knows that there is no mechanism by which the EU bureaucrats themselves, or even all of EU countries together, could kick Hungary out: there is simply no provision in the EU treaty to expel member countries.  Countries can themselves withdraw, as the UK did, but that is all.  The point of all the aggressive rhetoric against Hungary and in favor of LGBTI ideology is to send a message to Hungary, Poland, and other countries.  The message is “We own the EU, the rules have changed, and if you attempt to assert the rights of families and protect children from radical gender indoctrination we will viciously attack you.”

The Dutch prime minister was joined in the attack by several other European leaders, including Luxembourg’s openly gay Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, who said he “will stay intolerant to intolerance and this will be my fight today”.  Saying that he is “intolerant to intolerance” is a lot like saying he would be “racist to fight racism.”  Where have we heard such logic before?  (Hint:  Critical Race Theory.)

Led by President Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission has begun proceedings against Hungary’s new law.  The Commission has the authority to formally order Hungary to stop implementing the law.  If Orban does not comply, which seems likely, the issue would then move to the European Court of Justice, which may attempt to annul or amend the law.  Von der Leyen said that the Hungarian law is “illegal”, which is patent nonsense.  The laws of the European Union make it clear that, in issues such as education, the sovereignty of each country must be respected.  In other words, a democratically approved education bill cannot, by definition, be “illegal”. 

What Von der Leyen is really saying is that the rules have changed, and henceforth unelected bureaucrats will interpret the EU treaty to suit their agenda.  The issue is no longer solely about Hungary or about a certain law.  It is rather about the future of the EU and whether its bureaucrats will be able to impose their ideology—including gender ideology—on every country and every citizen who lives there.

Despite the pushback, Prime Minister Orban is standing strong.  He stoutly maintains that the bill’s aim is to protect children from harmful ideas, and also protect the right of parents to educate their children as they see fit. He firmly denies that the bill is in any way discriminatory, pointing out that it does not infringe upon the sexual orientation rights of those over 18 years old. The bill, he says, only protects children from the excesses of a hypersexualized society that continually portrays sexuality as “an end in itself”. 

To date, Hungary stands nearly alone, with only Poland speaking up in its defense.  One hopes that the Vatican will speak out in support of the new legislation, not to mention in defense of democracy itself.  Pope Francis has in the past referred to teaching transgender ideology to schoolchildren as “ideological colonizing.”  He regards it as part of the “global war against the family.”  As far as gender theory is concerned, he says it “wishes to undermine humanity in all areas and in all possible educational forms and it is becoming a cultural imposition which, instead of rising from below, is imposed from above by some nations as the only possible cultural path to follow.” He believes “The young need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created.” Sex education must avoid the “pretension” of attempting to “cancel out sexual difference because one no longer knows how to deal with it.”

Now would be a very good time for Pope Francis to reiterate his opposition to this kind of “ideological colonization”, support the Hungarians, and send the message that, in a democracy, it is the people who rule, not a tiny, hypersexualized, godless oligarchy.

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