Jobbik VS Human Rights — 0:1

Jobbik, the Hungarian far right party is a serious actor in the political life of Hungary. Serious, because their supporters constitute a massive proportion of the Hungarian population: Jobbik is the second biggest opposition party in the parliament, and is currently in the fight for the title of biggest opposition party in Hungary. Their discourse is radical and aggressive, but a lot of people seem to like what they say: they attend their protests and rallies, and vote for them during the elections. This context is important to keep in mind, when evaluating what Jobbik MPs do or say, be it an act of burning an EU flag on a protest, or submitting an amendment motion to the parliament.

Last Tuesday, Ádám Mikóczki did the latter: he submitted a motion to amend the criminal code and the Basic Law in an effort to ban displays of something that he calls sexual deviancy, and sexual aberration. What do the terms stand for? The answers are listed in the proposal: homosexuality, transgender-ness, transvestism, bisexuality and pedophilia. According to the proposal, in defence of the healthy thinking of younger generations, a loosely phrased range of public displays the aforementioned ‘sexual aberrations’ should be punished by the law with a prison sentence of up to three years. Putting into the same category the act of dressing up as someone from the opposite sex, and having sex with a prepubescent child as an adult is by itself a chilling idea, and explaining the ways in which this particular proposal is completely misguided could fill up many pages by itself.

Fidesz MP Gergely Gulyás, deputy chairman of Parliament's human rights committee described the Jobbik proposal as an unnecessary and unjustified provocation. Maybe it was intended to be one, and surely the even the Jobbik members did not think that the parliament will unanimously vote ‘yes’ on the proposal. Still, it can be seen as a very direct declaration of the intention of a political party and it’s supporters, which is, again, among the most serious opposition forces in Hungary.