We Should All Take Pride in National Sovereignty

Never mind wars and civil conflicts, economic crises and tariffs, scandals and corruption. For many among the Brussels elites and on the European left, it would appear that the biggest problem facing the EU lately has been the Hungarian government’s attempt to ban a Pride march in its capital city, Budapest.

That seems ridiculous. Yet in a perverse way, they have a point. Because the seemingly minor issue of Budapest Pride has raised once again the biggest question in EU politics—the one that lurks behind every debate today.

That question is: Who rules? Who is to decide what is legally or morally right in Hungary or any other sovereign member state of the European Union? 

Should it be the democratically-elected government and representatives of the people of Hungary? Or should it be decided outside Hungary, by the unelected, unaccountable commissioners and judges of the European Union? That is far more important than the fate of a Saturday afternoon march.

In March, the Hungarian parliament overwhelmingly passed a law proposed by prime minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz government, forbidding any public event that would infringe child protection laws by presenting sexuality “in a self-serving way” or popularising gender reassignment or homosexuality to children. The MPs will be accountable to the Hungarian people for their decisions in next year’s general election.

But national democracy is intolerable to the EU elites when it passes the ‘wrong’ laws. The European Commission and the European Court of Justice, backed by globalist NGOs, leftist governments and MEPS and Greta bloody Thunberg have all railed against Hungary’s child protection laws for infringing woke ‘EU values’—and many of them rallied in Budapest on Saturday, when the banned Pride event took place illegally, but without any police interference, under the auspices of the city’s Green mayor. 

‘Queen’ Ursula von der Leyen, unelected President of the EU Commission, mounted her transnational throne to “call on the Hungarian authorities to allow the Budapest Pride to go ahead”, in defiance of their own law. In response, prime minister Orbán entirely reasonably urged the Commission “to refrain from interfering in the law enforcement affairs of Member States, where it has no role to play.”

But von der Leyen was not interfering enough for the Pride protestors on Saturday, who carried banners demanding “Ursula—stop protecting Orbán! Protect democracy!”

In this upside down, Ursula-through-the-looking-glass version of events, “democracy” no longer means the rule of the majority. It means whatever elites, authorities and interest groups want. Thus an unelected Eurocrat trampling on the will of an elected national parliament can be depicted as ‘democracy’ in action.

Forget about the will of the people. The EU leaders have done everything in their power to bend Hungary to their woke will and get rid of the national-conservative government that has refused to toe the Brussels line on everything from mass migration to gender ideology. 

That is why the EU currently fines Hungary a million euros a day for failing to open its national borders to illegal migrants. In case anybody doubts the political motives behind these punitive measures, let them listen to the Hungarian opposition politician who says that it will be “positive” if the EU sanctions cause hardship among the people of Hungary. 

There is much more at stake here than a Pride parade. Anybody can disagree all they like with Orbán’s policies. (Personally, whilst agreeing with much that they say about what Lauren Smith calls the perversion of Pride I am not a big fan of the idea that bans can resolve social issues.) Arguing the pros and cons of such questions is what democratic debate is all about.

But unless you have national sovereignty, and democratic control of your government, your arguments and opinions will count for nothing. Because you will not have the power to change anything. You will be left waiting on Queen Ursula and her minions to make the decisions for you.

National sovereignty is the only basis for democracy that has ever worked. Any talk of a mythical ‘Europe-wide democracy’ is simply a cover for the rule of the EU Commission and courts.

And before any fool starts screeching about how this is different, because Orbán’s Hungary is “fascist!” and international action is needed, let us be clear. Behind the smokescreen of their propaganda war, Hungary remains as free and democratic as other European nations. What makes Orbán’s “illiberal democracy” intolerable to the Brussels establishment is that his government insists upon upholding the pro-nation, pro-family and culturally Christian principles which it was elected to defend.

If Hungary really was the fascist state that Pride protestors claimed on Saturday, they would certainly not have been left alone to shout such slanderous abuse at the government. Perhaps they would prefer a dose of the treatment freedom-loving Greta’s Islamo-fascist mates in Hamas reserve for opponents and gays?

I recently finished a three-month stint of working in Budapest. It is not only a beautiful city but a remarkably safe one, where same-sex couples stroll around holding hands —and where, unlike in most other continental capital cities, they do not need armed police guards to surround the synagogues.

The EU elites have constructed a caricatured version of Orbán’s Hungary to justify their woke crusade. Demanding even more interference in Hungary’s affairs over Pride, the co-chair of the Greens group in the European Parliament declared that “The Commission has to act to show that Hungarians have the same fundamental rights as all other EU citizens.” They use the abstract legalistic language of “fundamental rights” to undermine the real democratic right that underpins the rest—national self-determination.

The dangerous direction of travel is clear. At the same time as the row over Budapest Pride was heating up, the EU Commissioner for competition was making clear that Brussels would not back down in its campaign to make U.S. tech giants impose more restrictions on free speech online. “We will not compromise about sovereignty,” she said. 

But the only sovereign bodies in the European Union are the member states. Any talk of “EU sovereignty” can only mean the Brussels bureaucracy asserting its ultimate authority, not over the United States of America, but over the independent nation states of Europe—and the people who elect their leaders.

That is why, whatever you think about Greta Thunberg’s inalienable right to make a mockery of freedom in Budapest, we should all take pride in national sovereignty, and Hungary’s willingness to stand up for it. They are fighting for the future, not only of Hungarian children, but also of a free Europe.