Hungary’s far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orbán urged all central European nations on Thursday to unite and preserve their Christian roots that were at the risk of being watered down, saying that western Europe had “given up” on Christianity, and instead experiments with “godless cosmos, rainbow families, migration and open societies”. Orbán’s remarks were made an event to inaugurate a monument commemorating the Treaty of Trianon, which was signed after the First World War and led to Europe’s maps being re-drawn.
For many Hungarians, the Treaty of Trianon is still a national trauma, which took away a significant portion of the country’s territory and left millions of ethnic Hungarians living outside its borders. Orbán has granted citizenship and a right to vote to such groups of people as part of his strategy to instill a sense of unity and national pride.
He said on Thursday that the monument, which stands near the Hungarian parliament building, symbolized a call to central European countries to strengthen their alliance and rally around what he called the “Polish flagship”. The governments in both Hungary and its main regional ally Poland under their current leaders have adopted hardline policies against same-sex families, immigration, women’s sexual and reproductive rights, and atheism, among other issues. Poland’s conservative ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) under President Andrzej Duda has also made opposing the “LGBT ideology” a key part of its electoral strategy.
In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government has increasingly used anti-LGBT rhetoric as part of a perceived culture war against anyone who does not fit into its definition of a “traditional family”. Described as an illiberal democracy first, Orbán now prefers to call his system of government a “Christian democracy”, with strong support for his regressive policies from the Hungarian Catholic Church.
The country recognizes legal unions for same-sex couples, but the Fidesz party opposes the legislation of same-sex marriage. Last year, the speaker of parliament, an Orbán ally, compared gay couples that adopt to pedophiles. In May of this year, the Hungarian parliament passed a bill that banned people from legally changing their gender on official documents, effectively ending any opportunity for gender recognition for transgender and intersex people, who are now no longer able to obtain documents in accordance with their gender identity.
Last weekend, two rainbow flags were torn down from government buildings in Budapest, which led to a warning from the US Embassy that neo-Nazi groups should not be tolerated.
Hungary’s Orbán Uses Christian Message to Call for a United Central Europe
He said that Christian values are at risk as western Europe becomes more liberal.
August 21, 2020
Soldiers visit the 'Memorial of National Unity' commemorating the Trianon treaty, in Budapest, Hungary, on August 20, 2020. SOURCE: NBC NEWS/REUTERS