Brought before the European Commission after the 2021 adoption of a law prohibiting the “promotion of homosexuality” in Hungary, the Court of Justice of the European Union rules it “contrary to the very identity of the Union”. This legislation was the backbone of the 2025 ban on the Budapest Pride.
It took a 138-page ruling to lay to rest the state-hostility to homosexuality implemented in Hungary by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán until his defeat, last week, in the legislative elections. On Tuesday, April 21, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on the legality of the law prohibiting the “promotion of homosexuality”, adopted in Budapest in 2021, on which the European Commission had brought a infringement action. “This law is contrary to the very identity of the Union”, the judges confirm.
The law in question is a copy-paste of the one adopted in 2013 by Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Under the pretext of the best interests of children, it forbids exposing them to any content depicting homosexuality or transgender identity. The text has served as a legal basis, for example, for last year’s ban on LGBT Prides in Hungary. “Such an approach reveals a preference for certain identities and sexual orientations at the expense of others, which are therefore stigmatized, which is incompatible with the requirements that arise in a pluralist society from the prohibition of discrimination based on sex and sexual orientation”, develop the judges of the CJEU. A “violation of the right to human dignity”, they summarize, which makes it contrary to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and to Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU), which defends the “respect for human dignity” and “non-discrimination”.
Turning the page on Orbán in Europe
“This is a historic decision, which confirms that anti-LGBT laws are contrary to European values and law, and that they have no place in our shared European home”, reacts to Têtu the French ambassador dedicated to LGBT+ issues, Jean-Marc Berthon. “Finally! Five years after the adoption of this law, the court’s ruling shows that Europe remains a space of pluralism and non-discrimination. In the global context, it is welcome”, adds former MEP Pierre Karleskind, also reached by Têtu, who was mobilizing in Brussels on these issues. The current co-chair of the LGBTQI+ Intergroup in the European Parliament, Dutch Green MEP Kim van Sparrentak, hails “a major success for the rule of law and the LGBTQI+ community in Hungary”.
And now, what will concretely happen? When a breach is found by the Court of Justice, the latter specifies in its press release, “the concerned Member State must comply with the ruling as soon as possible”. “The European Commission has no excuse for not demanding the repeal of this legislation”, stresses Katrin Hugendubel, deputy director of ILGA-Europe, who notes that the new Hungarian prime minister, Peter Magyar, “must make it a priority of his first 100 days in power” if he truly wants to turn the page on his reactionary predecessor: “Hungary cannot enter a post-Orbán era without repealing this legislation, which includes the ban on Pride marches.” If not, the CJEU further recalls, “when the Commission finds that the Member State has not complied with the decision, it may launch a new proceeding seeking financial sanctions”.
Beyond the Hungarian case, “this decision would be important also to prevent the adoption of similar laws in other EU Member States”, notes the Forbidden Colours association, which defends LGBTQI+ rights at the European level. And it cites the case of Bulgaria, a member of the EU since 2007, which in August 2024 adopted a law of the same kind against the “propaganda” of LGBT in schools. The president who had signed it at the time, Roumen Radev, has just won the legislative elections on April 19, which should make him the country’s new prime minister. It remains to him to decide whether he also wants to become Europe’s new Orbán…
