European Court of Justice says Hungary has acted in breach of EU law ‘on a number of separate levels’.

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The European Union’s top court has ruled that anti-LGBTQ legislation implemented by the Hungarian government in  2021 breaches the bloc’s law.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) found on Tuesday that the Hungarian legislation runs contrary to EU law “on a number of separate levels”.

Victory in the case, deemed the largest human rights case in the bloc’s history as it was launched by the European Commission alongside 16 of 27 member states and the European Parliament, has been hailed as a “landmark”.

Nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban insisted as he introduced the legislation five years ago that it was aimed at toughening punishments for child abuse, but it was then amended to ban the “promotion of homosexuality” to under-18s.

The legislation led to the banning of books, plays and films. Critics compared it to Russia’s harsh gay propaganda law of 2013, and called it out for stigmatising LGBTQ people and equating same-sex relations to paedophilia.

However, Orban’s “illiberal” regime continued to press the issue. Last year, it introduced new laws and a constitutional amendment that effectively banned the Budapest Pride march by declaring a determination to protect children from “sexual propaganda”.

However, 100,000 people took part in the event in defiance of the clampdown, the sheer weight of numbers leaving the government to back down.

Last month, Orban saw the end of his 16-year rule signalled as he was defeated in elections.

Incoming leader Peter Magyar has pledged to reset Hungary’s ties with the EU and is desperate to unblock some 18 billion euros ($21bn) in funds frozen by Brussels due to Orban’s democratic backsliding and failure to erect corruption protections.

Although also a conservative, Magyar avoided taking a clear stance on LGBTQ rights during election campaigning. But in his victory speech, he said Hungary has decided it wants to be a country where “no one is stigmatised for loving differently or in a different way than the majority”.

The court found that the legislation infringed on Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), including the rights of transgender and non-heterosexual individuals, “as well as the values of respect for human dignity, equality, and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities”.

The “law is contrary to the very identity of the Union as a common legal order in a society in which pluralism prevails”, the ECJ said in a statement.

“Hungary cannot validly rely on its national identity as justification for adopting a law which is in breach of the values referred to above”, it added.

The European Commission welcomed the ruling as a “landmark” and said it was now up to the Hungarian government to implement the decision.