Fifteen EU countries join the lawsuit before the European court against Hungary for Orbán's anti-LGTBI law

With the accession of France and Germany, the lawsuit before the European court against Hungary for Viktor Orbán's anti-LGTBI law has already become one of the largest human rights cases in the European Union, as the organizations celebrated this Friday in defense of the rights of LGTBI people who have been fighting for months so that the Member States join the legal action initiated last year by the European Commission before the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU).

Following the announcements of membership in Paris and Berlin on Thursday night, the day the term expired, there are a total of 15 EU countries —Spain did so in March— that have appeared in the infringement procedure initiated by the European Executive in mid-July 2022 and to which, in another unusual gesture, the European Parliament has also joined.

"With this unprecedented support, this lawsuit has become the largest human rights case in the legal history of the EU," celebrated this Friday the Belgian organization Forbidden Colours, one of the promoters of the campaign launched in mid-February to to obtain the support of the greatest number of Member States for the claim.

After Belgium, the first country to announce its accession, followed progressively by Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Denmark, Austria, Malta, Spain and Ireland.

Then came Sweden, Finland, Slovenia, Greece, and finally France and Germany.

“Most of the EU countries have said enough to Viktor Orbán making a copy-paste of the Kremlin's anti-LGBTIQ+ ideology”, said the executive director of Forbidden Colours, Rémy Bonny, for whom “Europe has never been so united and determined in matters of LGBTIQ+ rights.

That is what Orbán has achieved”.

At the same time, the organization has highlighted —and regretted— the absence of Giorgia Meloni's Italy in the case against Budapest.

As announced by Brussels in July 2022, it was decided to go to the CJEU after verifying that the Hungarian regulations, which prohibit talking about sexual orientation in schools and the media, "discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation and sexual identity."

The law approved by the Orbán government in 2021 "violates the rules of the internal market", specifically the directives on electronic commerce, services in the internal market and audiovisual media services, as well as the "fundamental rights of individuals (in particular LGBTIQ people) and European values" stipulated in Article 2 of the EU Treaty (TEU), maintains the European Commission.

Its president, Ursula von der Leyen, also cried out at the time against the Hungarian law.

"Europe will never allow parts of our society to be stigmatized, be it because of who they love, because of their age, their ethnicity, their political opinions or their religious beliefs," the German said.

Firmness in Brussels

Almost a year later, von der Leyen's position remains firm.

“For us, it is clear: the Hungarian law violates European law, fundamental rights and European values.

Now it is in the hands of the CJEU to decide on the case,” a spokesman for the Commission told this newspaper on Friday.

When Brussels considers that a State is not applying Union law, it can initiate an infringement procedure before the CJEU which, in the event that it determines that said country did in fact infringe any European regulation and that it does not correct it, can even impose sanctions economic.

The number of countries that have now joined the demand, more than half of the EU members, constitutes "a real front for human rights in Europe", tweeted French MEP Pierre Karleskind, vice-president of Parliament's LGTBI intergroup. European (an informal forum, but recognized by the European institution), and one of the main promoters of the European Parliament also appearing in the lawsuit.

The accession of so many countries "is an important sign that Germany and many others stand up for the fundamental rights of queer people," agreed German MP Sven Lehmann, the German federal government's commissioner for the acceptance of sexual and gender diversity.

In a sign that Budapest intends to stand up to this European "front", and use all its weapons to counterbalance, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of Hungary, Tamas Menczer, launched a criticism of Finland, which has just joined the NATO thanks to the Hungarian nod, which is clearly read as a threat to the other candidate waiting in the Atlantic Alliance, Sweden.

Stockholm has also entered the case against Hungary and, in addition to overcoming the Turkish veto, will need the Hungarian Parliament to ratify its membership before it can become NATO's 32nd member as it wishes.

“Our Finnish friends still have a lot to learn when it comes to fairness.

Begging until you get something, only to immediately turn your back on it is not appropriate behavior,” Menczer said on M1, reports France Presse.

Despite these maneuvers, Esther Martínez, director of Reclaim, another of the organizations that has promoted the campaign to adhere EU States to the claim before the CJEU, expressed this Friday her hope that this case will have a "deterrent effect against the reproduction of anti-LGBTIQ+ propaganda laws,” he said on social media.

"Political parties with similar plans in Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and Poland should now think twice before adopting a similar measure," she warned.

Follow all the international information on

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber