Thursday, September 18, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Hungary bans Pride – new law restricts LGBTQ events

Published 20 March 2025
– By Editorial Staff
The new law prohibits Pride events in Hungary as of this year.
2 minute read

The Hungarian Parliament has adopted a law banning future Pride events in the country. The law also allows authorities to use facial recognition to identify participants in such events.

While the aim is said to be to protect children from sexual propaganda, the decision has also attracted strong criticism from voices who believe that the rights of LGBT people are now being further curtailed in the country.

The bill, put forward by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s ruling party Fidesz, was passed by 136 votes to 27, with support mainly from its coalition partner, the Christian Democrats, reports the Associated Press.

The party justifies the law on the grounds that events like Pride can be very harmful to children. Already in 2021, Hungary passed a law that prohibits “promoting or depicting homosexuality and gender reassignment for persons under the age of 18″.

Under the new law, people participating in or organizing Pride events risk a fine of up to around €500. Authorities may also use facial recognition to identify participants.

“Frontal attack on the LGBT community”

During the vote in Parliament, MPs from the liberal Momentum party set off smoke flares in rainbow colors as a protest. Later, thousands of demonstrators gathered in Budapest and blocked the Margaret Bridge over the Danube in protest against the law.

Amnesty International described the law as a “…frontal attack on the LGBTI community” and the Mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony, condemned the decision and declared that the capital belongs to everyone.

Despite the ban, Budapest Pride organizers plan to hold this year’s parade as planned on 28 June. They stress the importance of standing up for everyone’s right to demonstrate.

The Hungarian government defends the law as a necessary measure to protect children from what it describes as “sexual propaganda”, but the opposition argues that the law is aimed at diverting attention from other political issues in the run-up to the upcoming elections.

The decision has further increased tensions between Hungary and the European Union, which has previously criticized the country’s LGBT policies.

In summary, the new law bans Pride events in Hungary, with severe penalties for participants and organizers.

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Orbán: “We feel sorry for the Swedes”

Deteriorating safety

Published today 9:40
– By Editorial Staff
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has on several occasions in a short period of time highlighted Swedish politicians as a cautionary example.
2 minute read

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is once again attacking Sweden’s government. In a new post on X, the Hungarian leader writes that he “feel for the Swedish people – trapped in disorder while their leaders spend their time pointing fingers”.

In his Wednesday post, Orbán lists figures to show the contrast between Hungary and Sweden. Hungary reportedly had zero bombings and zero illegal migrants during 2024, while 132 people smugglers were caught and 16,000 illegal migrants were stopped.

Sweden, on the other hand, according to Orbán’s sources, had 317 gang-related explosions during 2024, with 32 in January alone. 62,000 people are connected to criminal networks, 8,935 illegal migrants, and the firearm murder rate stands at 4 per million inhabitants – compared to the EU average of 1.6.

“Safe, orderly, under control”, Orbán writes about his own country, while describing Sweden as a country where “law and order collapses”.

The Hungarian leader also quotes Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who earlier this year admitted “that we don’t have control over the wave of violence is quite obvious”.

“Yet they lecture us about the rule of law,” Orbán writes, concluding with the words: “This chaos must not become Europe’s future, our people deserve better!”

Ongoing war of words

Orbán’s latest statement is a continuation of the war of words between him and the Moderate Party-led Swedish government. As recently as last weekend, the Hungarian prime minister attacked crime developments in Sweden and Swedish authorities’ inability to act, claiming among other things that “this is how a country collapses” and that “what remains is barbarism”.

During the political event, Orbán claimed that 284 underage girls had been arrested for murder in Sweden. However, the claim was incorrect – according to his source, German newspaper Welt, it concerned 284 girls between 15 and 17 years old who were investigated for various types of violent crimes, not just murder.

The Hungarian leader argued that this development had been ongoing for fifteen years under different Swedish governments and that politicians had “relegated the country outside European civilization”.

— By the way, these are the Swedes who lecture us about the rule of law, he added as a final jab, referring to how the Kristersson government has directed harsh criticism at what it considers Hungary’s democratic backsliding and restrictions on LGBTQ rights and other civil liberties.

CDU wins in North Rhine-Westphalia – AfD triples its support

Published 15 September 2025
– By Editorial Staff
AfD party leader Alice Weidel regards the preliminary result as a major victory.
2 minute read

The CDU appears set to become the largest party in the state election in Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia. But it is primarily the national-conservative Alternative for Germany that has reason to celebrate after tripling its voter support.

When polling stations closed on Sunday, initial projections showed that the Christian Democratic CDU, led by former BlackRock executive Friedrich Merz, received around 34 percent of the vote. The Social Democratic SPD came in second place with 22.5 percent.

However, the biggest change comes from Alternative for Germany (AfD). The party appears to have received 16.5 percent – a significant increase from 5.1 percent in the 2020 election.

Sunday’s election was the first local election since the political upheaval in German politics earlier this year, and for AfD the result represents another step in the party’s westward expansion.

The national-conservative party has made historic gains in recent years and become the second-largest political force at the national level. The voter base has traditionally been found in eastern Germany but is now also growing in the west – as Sunday’s results in North Rhine-Westphalia demonstrate.

Strict opinion laws

Despite AfD’s growing support in both elections and opinion polls, the party struggles to gain actual political influence. The other established parties have consistently refused to cooperate and formed various coalitions to keep AfD out of power.

Several German authorities have gone even further and argued that AfD should be completely banned and classified as unconstitutional.

Germany’s strict opinion laws make many immigration-critical and nationalist positions criminal acts. While several neighboring countries have considerably freer debate, German authorities often use 1930s history as an argument to silence political opposition.

AfD’s recent successes have, however, raised the question of whether German opinion laws and attempts to isolate AfD actually work – or whether they instead drive more dissatisfied German voters to the party.

Von der Leyen’s media plans spark anger: “Pure George Orwell’s 1984”

Totalitarianism

Published 12 September 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Swedish EU parliamentarian Dick Erixon from the Sweden Democrats is not impressed by von der Leyen's speech about the EU needing to "protect" establishment media.
3 minute read

Ursula von der Leyen presented plans in the European Parliament for a new media support program and increased EU funding for traditional establishment media.

Sweden Democrats’ EU parliamentarian Dick Erixon calls the EU Commission President’s speech “pure George Orwell’s 1984” and accuses von der Leyen of wanting to stifle freedom of expression.

In her speech to the European Parliament, the heavily criticized EU Commission President complained about how traditional establishment media are struggling for survival and spoke about rural areas where the local newspaper has become “a nostalgic memory” while warning that this has created “news deserts where disinformation thrives”.

As a solution, von der Leyen presented a “Media Resilience Programme” that will actively support what she and other EU power holders consider to be independent journalism and media literacy.

She also announced that the EU Commission proposes to “significantly boost funding for media” in the next EU budget, but only certain media will be able to access EU citizens’ tax money.

“Wants to protect legacy media”

Dick Erixon, the Sweden Democrats’ representative in the European Parliament, is among several who are directing very harsh criticism at the proposals.

“Deplorable speech by Ursula von der Leyen: Wants state authorities to protect legacy media from source criticism. It was a particularly divisive speech we heard in the European Parliament today. Ursula spoke about freedom but wants to stifle freedom of expression”, he states.

He is particularly critical of von der Leyen’s statement that the EU should “protect” traditional media.

“The EU will protect (yes, ‘protect’) legacy media in a new media program. Since paper newspapers are just a memory, ‘news deserts where disinformation thrives’ are created. Therefore, citizens need journalism they can ‘trust'”, Erixon writes sarcastically.

Warned about autocrats

In her speech, von der Leyen also claimed that independent media are under attack from “autocrats” who want to take control of them.

“The first step in an autocrat’s playbook is always to capture independent media. Because this enables backsliding and corruption to happen in the dark”, she proclaimed dramatically.

“A free press is the backbone of any democracy”, she then claimed and promised that the EU will “support Europe’s press to remain free”.

Dick Erixon points out, however, that von der Leyen and her allies hardly have any interest in a truly independent media landscape and that her rhetoric is rather about citizens blindly trusting what establishment media say and write – while forums that EU leaders don’t control should be made suspicious and censored.

“For Ursula, critical source examination of power holders and the establishment is of no value. ‘Trust traditional media’ was her message, while she believes that social media serves the purposes of darkness and corruption. It’s pure George Orwell’s 1984”, he says.

Wants to limit social media for children

Von der Leyen also wants to introduce restrictions on children’s use of social media. She accused the platforms of using “algorithms that prey on children’s vulnerabilities with the explicit purpose of creating addictions” and announced that an expert panel will develop proposals for EU restrictions before the end of the year.

“Our friends in Australia are pioneering a social media restriction. I am watching the implementation of their policy closely to see what next steps we can take here in Europe”, von der Leyen said.

Von der Leyen gave no further details in her speech about how the media support program will work, what criteria will be used to distribute support, or how large a budget is planned for the program. She also did not specify who will define what counts as “disinformation” or “independent media”.

The EU Commission has also proposed using private capital to support certain media, without further explaining how this will work.

Six AfD politicians dead in short time – raises questions ahead of German election

Published 4 September 2025
– By Editorial Staff
German police claim there is nothing to suggest that any of the deceased AfD politicians were victims of crimes.
2 minute read

Six politicians from the national-conservative party Alternative for Germany (AfD) have died within the span of a few weeks in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The deaths occurred just weeks before the regional election on September 14.

Four candidates and two substitutes from AfD reportedly died during an extremely short time period, which has sparked speculation within the party. The deceased are Ralph Lange, 66, Wolfgang Klinger, 71, Stefan Berendes, 59, and Wolfgang Seitz, 59, as well as two substitutes who have not yet been named.

German police claim they are investigating all deaths, but that no crime is suspected at present. Authorities state that two of the deaths were due to natural causes and information about other causes of death has not been released out of consideration for the relatives.

AfD’s deputy leader in North Rhine-Westphalia, Kay Gottschalk, spoke out on Tuesday about the rumors circulating within the party that the politicians had been murdered or otherwise died unnaturally.

— What I have in front of me – but that’s just partial information – that doesn’t back up these suspicions at the moment, Gottschalk told Politico’s Berlin Playbook Podcast.

He emphasized that the party wants the cases investigated “without immediately getting into conspiracy-theory territory” and pointed out the importance of showing consideration for the affected families.

“Almost statistically impossible”

AfD party leader Alice Weidel has also drawn attention in connection with sharing a post from economist Stefan Homburg, who argued that the number of deaths was “almost statistically impossible”.

 

Practical problems have also arisen following the deaths – ballot papers have had to be reprinted several times and some early votes have been declared invalid.

AfD has made significant progress in North Rhine-Westphalia since the last state election in 2022. According to opinion polls, the party has increased from 5.4 percent to nearly 17 percent of voter support.

North Rhine-Westphalia is Germany’s most populous state with 18 million inhabitants. In total, around 20,000 candidates are running in the September 14 election.

Despite the polling successes, AfD is still expected to be shut out from influence when other established parties join together to stop the EU- and immigration-critical party.

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