Poland Y Hungary are the two main exponents Of the call “illiberal democracy” inside of European Union. The authoritarian modelultra-conservative and ultra-nationalist was inaugurated by the Hungarian Prime Minister, Victor Orban, and Warsaw is the advanced student of Budapest. Both countries have stood out for years for his check to the separation of powers, for the conversion of the public communication media into propaganda media, for the approval of laws that try to corner critical media and journalistsfreedom of the press and information, and for patriotic speeches that seek to brand opposition voices as foreign agents.
Regarding the rights of sexual minoritiesWhat is the situation in both countries? A look at Rainbow Europe Ranking leaves no room for doubt: Poland is by far the worst situated country in the list of EU countries. Out of a total of 100 percentage points possible, the country governed since 2015 by the Party of Law and Justice (PiS) does not even reach 14% and thus closes the list of the 27 states. In position 20 is Hungary, which is close to 30 points. Between Poland and Hungary there are six countries that, a priori, would seem to have better conditions for sexual minorities: Czech Republic, Italy, Lithuania, Estonia, Bulgaria Y Romania.
The Rainbow Europe Ranking analyzes countries based on seven categories: equality and non-discrimination, family, hate crimes and speech, legal gender recognition, intersex bodily integrity, civil social space and asylum. The preparation and coordination of the ranking responds to ILGA-Europe, an umbrella NGO that brings together more than 600 organizations from 54 countries in Europe and Central Asia. The EU partially finances the publication. “Is he reference study on LGTBI rights in Europe, the most complete comparative analysis instrument in the region & rdquor ;, he tells EL PERIÓDICO Enrique Anarte, journalist specializing in the rights of sexual minorities. “This is an objective analysis of current legislation & rdquor ;, she adds.
“LGBT free zones”
Since 2019, a hundred municipalities concentrated in eastern and southern Poland have self-proclaimed “zones free of LGBT ideology”. They are symbolic statements, but they perfectly illustrate the official hostility against sexual minorities. During the campaign for the last Polish presidential elections of 2020 – which he won again the PiS –, the Polish president, Andrej Duda, did not hesitate to stir up hatred against this group, which he described as “neobolshevism.” Homophobia and transphobia are thus institutionalized in a country in which the Catholic Church continues to have great political and social weight.
A look at the analysis Rainbow Europe Ranking of the legal reality of Poland gives a bleak panorama for sexual minorities: the country fails in practically all the sections of the study, with the exception of legal gender recognition, where it has been legislated in, for example, the prohibition of sterilization or castration of trans people. It is a reality that lesbians, homosexuals and trans have been leaving the country for years – or silvering it – in the face of the dominant hostility against the collective.
Hungarian legal framework
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As for Hungary, its legal framework is more advanced than the Polish, despite the fact that the authoritarian model installed by Víktor Orbán is older – his ruling party has been uninterrupted since 2010 – and his evident ideological closeness with the Russian president Vladimir Putin, from which Budapest copies certain legislation against, for example, the so-called “homosexual propaganda & rdquor ;. The Hungarian government has, for example, approved laws against crimes and hate speech against sexual minorities, and a reform of the civil code that recognizes rights similar to those of traditional marriage – between a man and a woman – for same-sex couples.
“The difference between Poland and Hungary is that most of the problems that are occurring in the second country are not reflected in a loss of legal protectionbut in trouble social level, economic and of judicial independence. And all of the latter is not reflected in the Rainbow Europe ranking. Therefore, this classification does not mean that it is easier to live as an LGTBI in Hungary than in countries that they are behind on the list, such as the Czech Republic, Italy or Lithuania”, analyzes Enrique Anarte, who adds: “Meanwhile, in Poland there was never an improvement in the legal protection of sexual minorities”.