TISZA Passes “Gender Law” in Line with Brussels’ Demands

Opposition parties unanimously reject TISZA’s “gender law,” which they say is disguised as a child protection measure. FIDESZ and Mi Hazánk (Our Homeland) oppose the amendments, warning that they weaken parental rights and could open schools to LGBTQ advocacy.

Gender propaganda, which FIDESZ had removed from child-rearing and education, is being allowed back under the TISZA government, Hungary’s largest opposition party said in a statement. FIDESZ claims that, instead of standing with Hungarian families, the TISZA party has sided with pedophiles.

It recalled that the FIDESZ–KDNP government introduced a register of pedophiles in 2021, giving parents direct access to information that helped them check the backgrounds of people who came into contact with their children.

The TISZA government’s “gender law” makes the database of convicted sex offenders inaccessible.

In the child protection referendum held on April 3, 2022, more than three and a half million Hungarians voted “No” on these issues. “Péter Magyar and the TISZA party are once again betraying Hungarians in order to win Brussels’ support,” the FIDESZ parliamentary group said.

FIDESZ MEP Balázs Orbán highlighted pressure from Brussels in connection with the law’s adoption. He said he was unconvinced by the governing party’s legal argument that the reforms were necessary to comply with rulings by EU courts, pointing to the referendum mentioned above.

More Hungarians voted against gender propaganda than have ever voted for any single political party in Hungary – or even for EU accession.

Yet the Tisza Party is disregarding this democratic mandate because Brussels demanded it.

Total capitulation. A betrayal of the voters.

— Balázs Orbán (@BalazsOrban_HU) October 13, 2026

Misleading and ideologically manipulating children is a crime, the Christian Democrats (KDNP) said in a statement. Instead of the left-wing TISZA party’s version of “child protection” and the “gender law” dictated by Brussels, the KDNP believes children need genuine protection free from gender ideology.

Mi Hazánk said during the parliamentary debate that it considered numerous provisions of the bill worthy of support. However, it criticized the plan to once again allow organizations established to spread LGBTQ propaganda access to educational institutions.

The opposition’s criticism also found support in a report by a prominent think tank.

According to the Axioma Center, the Hungarian government should have retained the prohibitions introduced in the 2021 child protection legislation concerning gender identity that differs from sex at birth, gender reassignment, and the promotion and portrayal of homosexuality. In line with Article XVI of Hungary’s Constitution and parents’ primary right to raise their children, these provisions provided a concrete means of protecting minors’ physical, mental and moral development, they said.

BREAKING NEWS

The Hungarian government has voted to remove restrictions on LGBTQ-related content for minors from the nations’s child protection legislation, following a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union.

The amendment raises important questions about defending Christian values, child protection, parental rights and national sovereignty.

The Axioma Center has expressed concern that the changes weaken existing safeguards and limit Hungary’s ability to determine its own approach to protecting children.

The debate extends beyond the content of the law itself. It also concerns the relationship between legal obligations dictated by the EU, Hungary’s constitutional identity, and the role of parents in their children’s upbringing.

— Axioma Center (@AxiomaHungary) October 13, 2026

The legislative amendment also concerns Hungary’s national sovereignty, as the changes were compelled by the Court of Justice of the European Union’s ruling of April 21, 2026, which found Hungary in breach of EU law.

This raises the question of how far the Hungarian state can independently determine the rules governing the protection and upbringing of Hungarian children, and the extent to which obligations under EU law restrict the exercise of this national authority.

The purpose of the legislation introduced in 2021 was not to restrict the legal status or relationships of LGBTQ adults. Nor did it deny the existence of homosexuality or gender dysphoria. Rather, it stipulated that content in the media, advertising or school lessons that promotes LGBTQ identities or portrays them in a favorable or self-serving manner should not be freely accessible to people under 18.

The restrictions did not call anyone’s human dignity into question; rather, they opposed presenting same-sex attraction or a divergence from biological sex to minors as a role model or norm.”

The broader wording introduced by the TISZA government prohibits sexual violence and exploitation but removes from the law the bans on portraying homosexual relationships and gender reassignment. In practice, this creates room for activist organizations to operate in schools and weakens parental oversight.

Via Axioma Center, MTI; Featured image: MTI/Balogh Zoltán

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