FILE PHOTO: People attend the annual Pride march in Budapest, Hungary, June 22, 2024. REUTERS/Marton Monus/File Photo
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary's governing party has proposed constitutional changes that could mean a ban on an annual march celebrating the LGBTQ+ community and the expulsion of citizens with dual citizenship if they are deemed to pose a threat to the country's sovereignty.
Nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban has repeatedly criticised LGBTQ+ people and pledged to crack down on foreign funding of independent media and non-governmental organizations in Hungary in recent weeks, after his ally, U.S. President Donald Trump, paused funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Trump's steps prompted speculation that Orban would be emboldened and clamp down on media deemed to be unfriendly.
"The corruption network that rules the entire Western world of politics and media must be eliminated," Orban told parliament on February 24, adding that his government would "go to the wall" with the new laws.
The governing Fidesz party submitted its proposed amendments to the constitution late on Tuesday.
According to the proposed amendments, the constitution would add an amendment emphasizing the protection of children's physical, mental and moral development over all other rights.
The new law could pave the way for a ban on the annual Pride March by LGBTQ+ communities as the event could be considered harming children and protecting their development would supersede the right to assemble.
Orban's government is targeting the Pride March ahead of elections next year.
Another of the amendments states that Hungarian nationals who also hold a citizenship of another country can be expelled "if their actions pose a threat to Hungary's national sovereignty, public order, territorial integrity or security."
The changes will also enshrine in the constitution that Hungary will recognize only two sexes, male and female, an idea that Trump has also backed.
The proposed changes will also enshrine the right to cash payments in the constitution, embracing an idea the Hungarian far-right has backed because of a lack of trust in banks, draft legislation on the parliament's website showed.
Orban, in power since 2010, faces elections in 2026 with the economy just moving out of an inflation crisis and with a surging new opposition party posing the strongest challenge yet to his rule.
(Reporting by Krisztina Than, Anita Komuves and Gergely Szakacs; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
