The Commission ultimately referred the case to the court, backed by 15 member countries and the European Parliament.
“The Hungarian bill is a shame,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in 2021, vowing to use “all the powers of the Commission to ensure that the rights of all EU citizens are guaranteed, whoever you are and wherever you live.”
Despite that pressure, the Hungarian government pressed ahead. Last year, it banned Pride events and authorized police to use biometric cameras to identify organizers and attendees — deepening its standoff with the EU.
The court’s ruling is in line with earlier legal statements. The court’s top legal adviser previously argued that Hungary “has significantly deviated from the model of a constitutional democracy,” calling out the rules for being “based on a value judgment that homosexual and non-cisgender life is not of equal value or status as heterosexual and cisgender life.”
“We clearly said that, according to Tisza and the many million Hungarian people supporting it, everyone can live with whoever they love as long as they do not violate laws and they are not harmful to others,” Magyar said in the aftermath of his election win, also backing Pride events in the name of the right to freedom of assembly.
“Hungary wants to be a country where no one is stigmatized for thinking differently, or for loving someone different from the majority, or for believing something different from the majority,” he added.