Hungary's parliament voted 139 to 51 on October 13, 2026, to remove restrictions from the 2021 child protection law that had prohibited the depiction or promotion of sexual and gender diversity in materials accessible to minors. General protections against material that could seriously harm a child's physical, mental, emotional, or moral development remain in place. The vote followed a ruling by the European Court of Justice on April 21, 2026, which found Hungary had violated EU law with the earlier version.
What the European Court Found in April
The court, sitting as a plenary, found the European Commission's infringement case against Hungary justified on all counts. The law enacted in 2021 under then-Prime Minister Viktor Orban had restricted or banned access to content depicting or promoting self-identity different from assigned gender, gender transition, or homosexuality, including in the audiovisual sector and advertising. The court found this violated freedom to provide services, anti-discrimination rules, respect for private and family life, and freedom of expression. In the court's assessment, the law stigmatized and marginalized non-cisgender and non-heterosexual people solely based on gender identity or sexual orientation, portraying them as harmful to minors. The law's title also linked affected people to those convicted of pedophilia, which the court said could strengthen stigmatization and foster hateful behavior. For the first time, the court found a separate violation of Article 2 of the EU Treaty, which sets the union's shared values, rejecting Hungary's appeal to national identity.
The October 13 Vote
Parliament approved the proposal, which the government had introduced a month earlier, with votes from the ruling Tisza party, which holds a two-thirds majority. MPs from Fidesz and the Mi Hazánk party voted against. Prime Minister Peter Magyar commented on Facebook that Fidesz and Mi Hazánk had voted together against a law strengthening child protection, accusing both parties of voting against aid for infants abandoned in hospitals and against protecting children from violence. He called this a disgrace. Former Prime Minister Viktor Orban accused Magyar in a Facebook post of surrendering Hungarian children to gender ideology at Brussels' demand, calling the previous Fidesz law Europe's best child protection law. Orban noted that 3.5 million Hungarians voted no to so-called gender propaganda in a 2022 child protection referendum, and said the Tisza government was ignoring the people's will. Magyar had largely avoided LGBTQ rights in his campaign and characterized the changes as strengthening child protection independent of sexual orientation.
On the same October 13, the Council of the European Union lifted long-standing conditional measures that had blocked EU funding for Hungary over corruption risks, freeing 4.2 billion euros. The fund release followed strengthened anti-corruption reforms and occurred independently of the LGBTQ law change. A Commission assessment had found corruption preconditions no longer met, prompting the council to approve the release. The 4.2 billion represents part of the contested total. In May, Magyar and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had agreed on terms for releasing a total of 16.4 billion euros. Beyond the freed 4.2 billion, Hungary requested an additional 10 billion euros from recovery funds whose conditions the Commission was still reviewing as of October 13. The LGBTQ law had separately blocked approximately 0.5 to 0.6 billion euros in cohesion funds since late 2022 as a separate horizontal condition. The Hungarian delegation presented already-implemented reforms and additional measures under consideration, while the Commission gave its own assessment.
Remaining Concerns From Critics
State Secretary Szilvia Gyurko said the goal was to separate child protection from any connection to sexual orientation or gender identity. Human rights advocates welcomed the changes but called for a review of other discriminatory provisions from the Orban era in Hungarian law. Tamas Dombos of the Hatter Society human rights group called the removal an important and positive step but warned that restoring the legal situation before 2020 would require changing many more laws, and his group did not know if the government was working on this. Human Rights Watch had warned the previous month that the draft did not go far enough in removing other provisions that could ban Pride marches and other LGBTQ gatherings. Restrictions remain on legal recognition of gender identity, adoption by same-sex couples, and rules that enabled Pride march bans.
What Remains Pending
The Article 7 procedure, separate from the budgetary process, continues.