This question was asked recently by the US Helsinki Commission and also exactly a year ago by the Nobel prize laureate, Paul Krugman. Why does Hungary, this small, landlocked country with around 10 million inhabitants in Central Eastern Europe, matter to the US or to any other EU country?
However, the recent happenings, namely the latest, Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of Hungary, put this country into the spotlight and brought international responses. It is not the first legislative act which was highly debated – let’s recall reactions to the media law for example and the criticism of Venice Commission since the change in the constitution in 2011 – but the critics sound even louder this time.
The 15-page amendment, which has been passed by the Hungarian Parliament on 11th of March, contains parts about the definition of marriage (“the union of a man and a woman”) and family (“based on marriage and the relationship between parents and children”), implicitly excluding the recognition of same-sex marriage. It also reinforces the heavily criticised contract between the university or college students and the state, which defines the conditions of state-supported years in higher education: Students have to stay and work after graduation in Hungary for the same period of time they have studied in their college or university and received state support. Finally, it grants an option to declare homelessness illegal (“declare illegal staying in a public area as a permanent abode with respect to a specific part of such public area”).
MMA countdown – Free Artists welcomes the resigned MMA-members!
TRANSZPARENCIÁT!