David Koranyi is the president of Action for Democracy. I never thought I’d see the day when Hungary — my country of birth — would threaten to suspend my citizenship for the act of defending democracy. Yet, here we are. Just last week, Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party adopted a bill that would allow the government to temporarily strip dual citizens — specifically those who are also nationals of non-EU or non-European Economic Area countries — of their Hungarian passports, should they be deemed to have acted “in the interest of foreign powers” and “undermined the sovereignty of Hungary.”  The ambitions of this bill are clear as day. This is not about national security; it’s about silencing dissent. It’s about targeting civil society, journalists and activists — both within Hungary and the diaspora — who refuse to fall in line with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. I’ve already been the subject of many such attacks. My name and my organization, Action for Democracy, have been fixtures of the Hungarian government’s propaganda machine for years. The government has commissioned illegal surveillance, covertly recording videos and taking photographs of me and my family in front of our apartment in New York. It has published unfounded allegations in pro-government newspapers. It has launched misogynistic attacks against my wife. And it has instructed the Hungarian intelligence agencies, as well as the Orwellian “Sovereignty Protection Authority” — a body modeled on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s repressive state machinery — to investigate my organization on the grounds of “national security.” Now, it wants the legal power to erase people like me from the soul and body of the nation altogether. We’ve seen this tactic before, in authoritarian states like Russia, China and Iran. But if this law is passed, Hungary would become the only EU member that could revoke citizenship based on vague, subjective allegations of disloyalty. It would send a chilling message to tens of thousands of naturalized citizens, dual nationals and diaspora Hungarians: Stay quiet, or lose your nationality. This is not an isolated act. Rather, it’s part of a broader authoritarian playbook — one that treats democracy, civil society and free speech as threats to be neutralized. For example, just last week, the regime also amended the constitution — for the 15th time in just as many years — to severely limit citizens’ freedom to peacefully protest, escalating its campaign against LGBTQ+ communities by effectively banning Pride marches. Leveraging a deeply problematic “Child Protection Act,” the regime now has carte blanche to criminalize assemblies it deems inappropriate, and use invasive surveillance technologies like facial recognition in its enforcement. This sets a chilling precedent, as the freedom of assembly — a cornerstone of democracy — can now be indefinitely suspended to silence political opposition. It also follows a series of wider developments, which indicate a pattern of rejecting international standards — particularly with respect to human rights. For instance, during a visit from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month, Orbán declared his intention to pull Hungary out of the International Criminal Court (ICC), where it is a founding member. During a visit from Benjamin Netanyahu, Viktor Orbán declared his intention to pull Hungary out of the International Criminal Court. | Janos Kummer/Getty Images The move was in apparent support of Netanyahu, who is subject to an ICC arrest warrant for alleged war crimes. And while this development comes as no surprise, it provides significant evidence that Orbán is prepared to put political expediency over justice, and that his government considers international law optional when it conflicts with political alliances. All this could spell trouble as we approach Hungary’s upcoming elections, which are slated for April 2026. Despite having captured much of the state over the past 15 years, Orbán is currently trailing behind opponent Peter Magyar, who has mounted a campaign to “detoxify” Hungary’s political system and stamp out corruption. Formerly a part of the Fidesz family, Magyar’s justifiably harsh criticism of Orbán’s regime has unsurprisingly resulted in the sort of attacks and state-orchestrated smear campaigns I’ve been enduring for years. And more worryingly, there are now rumors that Orbán might try to jail him or block him from contesting the elections.  Coming from an increasingly desperate and paranoid administration, all of this is about targeting citizens’ rights, international justice and democratic norms. And for European readers, I must warn: It isn’t exclusively a Hungarian problem. If a member country can strip its citizens of their rights, ban public expression and flout international obligations without consequence, the entire European project is at risk. The bloc can no longer afford to continue its strategy of half-measures and warnings. Orbán has proven, time and again, that he responds only to pressure. He has also openly spoken about “destroying” the EU from the inside and, believe me, he’s serious in this ambition. Thus, the European Commission should, without delay, launch infringement procedures into the new laws, as they clearly contradict the EU treaties. The bloc should also redirect , suspended funds, as best it can, to Hungarian municipalities, civil society organizations and independent media by updating the existing conditionality tool to allow for the reallocation of funds and ensure European taxpayer money doesn’t line the pockets of the authoritarian government. And last but not least, it’s high time the EU fundamentally reconsidered how it deals with governments that routinely undermine its values. As a Hungarian, European and American citizen, I will not be intimidated — nor will my organization. We will continue to support civil society in Hungary and other battleground countries fighting for freedom and justice around the world. We will mobilize diaspora communities. We will fight disinformation, repression and fear because democracy is not just a system, it is a promise.

The Netherlands has tightened its travel advice to the United States for LGBTQ+ people, highlighting an unease among European nations about Washington’s policies toward sexual minorities. The Dutch foreign ministry’s travel advice portal now notes that people belonging to a sexual minority should take into account that “laws and customs in the US towards LGBTQI+ people may differ from those in the Netherlands.” Dutch public broadcaster NOS points out that the travel advisory previously stated that U.S. laws were “comparable to those in the Netherlands,” with its liberal, progressive stance on LGBTQ+ rights. Following the Dutch notice, the Belgian government announced that it is also working on adjusting the travel advice in light of stricter border controls and changing attitudes toward transgender people and the LGBTQ+ community, Flemish public broadcaster VRT reported. German and Finnish authorities have also tightened their travel warnings for the U.S. after President Donald Trump took steps to remove some protections for sexual minorities, such as only accepting M or F (male or female) as gender identification on passports and visas. ”It reflects a sad and completely needless reality,” Dutch MEP Kim van Sparrentak, from the Greens group, told POLITICO. Van Sparrentak, who also heads the European Parliament’s LGBTIQ+ intergroup, stressed that the liberal European fears are “not only for people traveling to the U.S. but for a large part of the U.S. population too, trans and intersex people in particular.”

Six Hungarian lawmakers have been banned from entering parliament for two months after they disrupted the session Tuesday following the passing of an amendment making LGBTQ+ Pride marches illegal in Hungary. The lawmakers, from the liberal Momentum party, and independent MP Ákos Hadházy, protested by firing smoke bombs inside the parliament chamber. They disrupted the session after the majority voted with the initiative of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s illiberal government to ban any public gathering that violates its Child Protection Act, which limits access to anything that could “promote or portray the deviation of identity with respect to the sex at birth, gender reassignment or homosexuality.” Critics have called the law homophobic. “Basically, we are not surprised,” Momentum’s parliamentary leader Dávid Bedő told POLITICO, as they expected parliament speaker László Kövér, one of Orbán’s close allies, to “hit them with the full force of the party-state.” They say their main task now is not in parliament but in the streets. “We will continue to organize our resistance there to repeal this shameful law on assembly,” Bedő said. Bedő and two other lawmakers have been banned from entering Parliament for two months and will have their salaries withheld for six months. Three other Momentum lawmakers were banned from entering Parliament for one month and docked four months’ salary. Bedő’s fine of more than 24 million Hungarian forints (€60,000) is the highest fine ever imposed on a member of the Hungarian Parliament, and the six lawmakers’ total sanctions reached more than 80 million forints (€200,000).

In 1997, Hungarians held the first Pride march behind the fallen Iron Curtain. Almost three decades later, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wants Hungary to be the first country in the European Union to ban the protest nationwide. His illiberal government announced in late February that it wanted to ban the Pride march “in public form,” and on Monday, Orbán’s Fidesz party proposed an amendment to the Assembly Act that would make it “illegal to hold an assembly that violates the prohibition set forth in the Child Protection Act.” The Hungarian parliament is scheduled to vote on the amendment on Tuesday. Opponents of Pride — and of LGBTQ+ people in general — often claim that LGBTQ+ visibility is dangerous to children, sometimes in an attempt to paint people within the community as pedophiles. Organizers warn that Orbán’s administration could be stepping onto a slippery slope, and that banning Pride marches could ultimately mean the dissolution of democracy. “This is not child protection, this is fascism,” Budapest Pride wrote in a statement Monday, saying that the electorally threatened Orbán wants to win votes from the extremes of Hungary’s far right to boost his chances of winning the country’s next election, likely to be held in April 2026. IN THE NAME OF CHILDREN Although Orbán has been in power for 15 years, his Fidesz party has barely touched Pride marches, even while it has begun to weaponize policies affecting sexual minorities in the last five years, in parallel with the party’s shift from the center to the hard right. In the summer of 2020, Fidesz ended legal recognition of transgender people, and a year later, in parallel with anti-LGBTQ+ messaging, introduced the “Child Protection Act.” The law restricts rights by censoring comprehensive sex education, equating LGBTQ+ lifestyles with pedophilia, blocking same-sex couples from adopting children, and restricting content in media and advertising — steps similar to Russia’s attacks on sexual minorities.  “Protecting children is a priority in all circumstances. Anyone who has children knows what the problem is with the Pride parade and its aftermath on social media and other public forums. I have three children and I would not want them to see such content,” Máté Kocsis, leader of the Fidesz parliamentary group, said recently to the government-aligned weekly Mandiner. “Perhaps the organizers are also aware that what they do year after year irritates a large part of society. Abnormality provokes normality,” he added. Fidesz has made child protection one of its key policy concerns, but has a shaky record on the issue: In early 2024, Hungary’s President Katalin Novák had to resign after the press discovered she had pardoned a man who covered up a sexual abuse scandal at a children’s home.  The issue shook Fidesz’s core base, and reactivated the opposition, which began to coalesce around Péter Magyar, a former Fidesz member who has barnstormed onto the political scene and whose new party, Tisza, is now polling ahead of Orbán, posing a real threat to the Hungarian strongman. The move against the Pride march is one of the strongest examples yet of Fidesz’s efforts to snare marginalized extremist voters in order to reach a majority. If, for example, the party could attract the 6 percent of voters currently saying they will opt for the far-right Mi Hazánk party, that would be enough to catch up to Magyar’s Tisza. The majority of Hungarian voters, though, wouldn’t support a ban on Pride. According to a poll, only 36 percent of voters would support banning the march, while 56 percent would keep it open. Budapest’s liberal attitude is striking, with 78 percent of the capital’s residents wanting to keep Pride public. Budapest’s liberal-leaning mayor Gergely Karácsony told POLITICO: “Whatever anyone says, there will be Pride in Budapest this June. It may even be bigger than ever before. “When the problems in a country multiply, the smear campaigns of those in power are intensified. But if we accept that the law in this country no longer protects citizens from power, then we will lose everything we care about,” Karácsony added. MERE TOY OR REAL THREAT? Fidesz’s main goal in banning Pride may be electoral, in order to force Magyar — who wants to grab votes from the left and the right — into the LGBTQ+ debate, and risk alienating some voters. “The appeal against Pride serves the purpose of setting a trap for Magyar,” says political analyst Kristóf Gáspár, from the Budapest-based Paradigm Institute.  Whether such a strategy would work is questionable, says Szabolcs Pék, who works in polling for the Iránytű Institute, because most people have more pressing issues in their lives than Pride marches. “When Péter Magyar goes to small towns and villages and talks about everyday problems like bad railways, having to wait three years for a hip operation, and so on — these are hard-hitting issues that matter,” said Pék. Magyar has tried to downplay Orbán’s message, saying that “the Pride issue is just a dog’s toy,” an issue for the press to chew on, forced onto the political agenda by Fidesz to polarize voters.  Budapest Pride organizers also say that Orbán wants to create a “fake problem” by singling out sexual minorities and focusing attention on them instead of addressing more serious issues — but they would refrain from calling Fidesz’s move a mere communication tool. “If peaceful assemblies of any social group can be banned on flimsy grounds, then the right of assembly of every single Hungarian citizen is at stake,” Budapest Pride spokesperson Johanna Majercsik told POLITICO. Fidesz seems determined to make a ban on Pride a reality: According to Monday’s proposed amendment, anyone who holds or even participates in a gathering that “violates the prohibition set forth in the Child Protection Act” commits an offense punishable by a fine of 6,500 to 200,000 Hungarian forints (€16 to €502). The proposal would allow police to use facial recognition software to identify participants. “If our march is banned, we will take all possible legal measures to enforce our right to peaceful assembly,” Majercsik stressed. “But if the Hungarian government really goes down the road of prohibition, it will admit that Hungary is no longer a democracy.”

Georgian authorities are doubling down on media and civil society groups, putting forward a range of new restrictions apparently inspired by U.S. President Donald Trump’s foreign aid freeze. “The world-wide USAID scandal … has made it obvious that we should fully reclaim our country,” ruling Georgian Dream party chair Mamuka Mdinaradze said on Wednesday. Tbilisi will introduce a new bill to “define the standards of media objectivity and ethics” and ban foreign funding for media altogether. Last year, the Russia-friendly ruling party adopted a law branding NGOs and media receiving more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad as “foreign agents.” This week, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze doubled down on Western donors and their “coordinated work against the Georgian people and state,” saying foreign-funded NGOs attempted revolution. Another bill will scrap the state’s obligations to involve civil society in legislative decision-making. “Nobody should be able to keep the country in a constant state of turbulence with non-existent problems and trumped up accusations,” Mdinaradze said. On Thursday, the Georgian parliament also adopted a set of new laws tightening rules on assembly and demonstrations. One of the laws increased penalties for insulting a police officer on duty, which is now punishable by up to 60 days’ imprisonment. Penalties for disobeying a police officer have also increased. Earlier the government amended laws on public service, simplifying procedures to dismiss public servants. Amid ongoing anti-government protests, multiple public servants reported they were fired over their participation in protests. Journalists in Georgia told POLITICO that the government’s move is intended to silence critical voices. “This will be used as a leverage for censorship and silencing media in the hands of the power that has no independent institutions, no independent courts,” said Lika Zakashvili, co-founder of local media outlet Publika. ‘MPS HAVE CALLED JOURNALISTS TRAITORS’ Georgia has been gripped by political chaos since its parliamentary elections in October, which were marred by violence and irregularities. International election observers expressed concern over pressure on citizens and allegations of vote buying and ballot stuffing. In November, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for rerun as elections were “neither free nor fair.” A month later, the U.S. sanctioned Georgian oligarch and the founder of Georgian Dream Bidzina Ivanishvili for undermining Georgian democracy for the benefit of Russia. After authorities froze Georgia’s EU accession bid in November, thousands gathered in Tbilisi to demonstrate. The government dispersed protesters with brute force, subsequently arresting dozens at recurring rallies, among them opposition figures and journalists. Protesters holding Georgian and European flags clash with riot police during a demonstration against the government’s decision to suspend European Union membership talks. | Giorgi Arjevanidze/AFP via Getty Images “Authorities refuse to speak to us. MPs have called our journalists traitors simply for asking a question,” said Eter Turadze, editor-in-chief of local media Batumelebi. Batumelebi’s co-founder, journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli, was arrested on Jan. 11 at a demonstration after slapping a police chief who she said had insulted her. Now, she faces criminal charges and could be sentenced to up to seven years in prison. Amaghlobeli has been on a hunger strike since her arrest and has reported further abuse in detention. According to her lawyer, the police chief spat in her face, and she was denied access to water and a toilet. “Her hunger strike is a protest against the current state of affairs. Democracy needs to be defended,” said Turadze, adding that journalists in her newsroom are hindered from fulfilling their professional duty on a daily basis. Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said the ruling party’s proposed amendments “will further undermine citizens’ rights to freedom of expression and assembly” and called on Georgian authorities “to reverse course and return to Georgia’s EU path, respecting the will of Georgian citizens.” Salome Zourabichvili, fifth president of Georgia and staunch advocate for the country’s accession into the European Union, slammed the parliament for “pushing through new laws and amendments designed to silence dissent and suppress the voice of protest.”

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof will not be attending the COP29 climate summit that starts Monday as he handles the aftermath of violent clashes between football fans in Amsterdam. The Dutch capital was declared a “high-risk security area” after supporters of Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv football team became embroiled in skirmishes with other fans before and after a match against Dutch team Ajax Thursday night. Amsterdam’s acting police chief, Peter Holla, confirmed at a press conference on Friday that tensions had started the night before the match as Israeli supporters degraded Palestinian flags in the city center and destroyed a taxi. Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were also seen chanting anti-Arab slogans both in Amsterdam before the game and upon their return to Israel. “I will not be going to Azerbaijan next week for the U.N. Climate Conference COP29. Due to the major social impact of the events of last Thursday night in Amsterdam, I will remain in the Netherlands,” Schoof wrote on X on Saturday. The Netherlands will instead be represented by its climate envoy, Jaime Bourbon de Parme, as well as Climate Minister Sophie Hermans. Other global leaders skipping the COP29 include German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen and France’s Emmanuel Macron. The U.S.’s Joe Biden, Canada’s Justin Trudeau, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Australia’s Anthony Albanese also have said they won’t be attending what is expected to be a less significant climate summit than past editions. Following the violence around Thursday’s football match, Schoof met with Israel’s new Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar over the weekend and said that “the Dutch government was doing everything to ensure that the Jewish community in this country feels safe.” Amsterdam authorities imposed emergency measures on Friday, including a ban on protests and increased police presence. The measures will be in place for “at least this weekend” and until further notice, according to the local authorities. The violence took place around a Europa League match at Amsterdam’s Johan Cruyff Arena between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Dutch team Ajax. The locals won 5-0.

Local authorities in Amsterdam issued an emergency order declaring the Dutch capital a “high-risk security area” following attacks on Israeli football supporters on Thursday night. The emergency measures, which also cover the Amstelveen area, include enabling “preventive searches,” a ban on demonstrations and increased police presence. The imposition of the measures comes after supporters of Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv football team were attacked at Amsterdam’s Johan Cruyff Arena after a Europa League match against Dutch team Ajax. The Dutch side won the match 5-0. The emergency order, instituted on Friday, also bans “face-covering clothing when accompanied by potential disruptions to public order” and prescribes “additional attention and security for Jewish institutions and other vulnerable sites.” The measures will be in place for “at least this weekend” and until further notice, according to the local authorities.

PARIS — The French government is struggling to speak with one voice on a long-standing issue in French football: homophobic chants during games. On Thursday, Sports Minister Gil Avérous recommended in an interview that games be stopped and the home team declared the loser whenever homophobic chants are heard — a proposal quickly struck down by Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau. Homophobia and racism in sports is a problem across Europe, but the latest controversy in France erupted on Saturday between Paris Saint-Germain and Strasbourg. PSG’s supporters repeatedly sang a chant referring to their arch-rival Olympique de Marseille by a homophobic epithet. The two teams will square off in the French football Classique on Sunday. PSG was sanctioned last year after fans sang the same chant at their home field, the Parc des Princes, before a match against Marseille. This time, the stadium announcer attempted but failed to interrupt the chant, saying that the Qatari-owned club stands against homophobia and discrimination. Homophobic chants are a persistent issue in French football, not limited to the Parc des Princes. “Homophobic chants, clashes between supporter groups, assaults on law enforcement officers— we can no longer tolerate seeing intolerable behaviors every weekend in sports,” Retailleau wrote on X earlier this week. Unlike the sports minister, who proposed a strict protocol in stadiums — aligned with FIFA’s procedure to abandon games if discriminatory chants persist after an initial warning — the interior minister argued that “collective punishment” was “too easy.” “I want individual sanctions,” Retailleau said in an interview with a well-known French sports program. Retailleau said that undercover law enforcement officers would now be present in stands to identify those leading these chants. He also said that France’s three most-attended clubs — PSG, Marseille and Lyon — must implement a nominal ticketing system to identify troublemakers more easily. This policy is already in place in some stadiums, including Paris, though ID checks to verify ticket-holders are not consistently enforced.

Germany arrested a Libyan citizen suspected of plotting an attack against Israel’s embassy in Berlin, the federal prosecutor’s office said on Sunday. The authorities identified the man only as Omar A. and said he is “strongly suspected” of supporting the terror organization Islamic State (IS) and intended to carry-out an attack with firearms on the Israeli embassy. He would have discussed this online with a member of IS, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. The German government is under pressure to increase security measures and address migration after a series of violent attacks allegedly perpetrated by people who entered the country as asylum-seekers, like the knife attack in the western city of Solingen in August. In reaction, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced several measures to curb migration, including border checks within the Schengen area and a plan to speed deportations. Migration has also come to the forefront at the European level as leaders discussed the topic during this week’s European Council. The EU leaders seem to be backing deportation centers, sending migrants back to Afghanistan and Syria. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also promised tougher laws following the Council meeting. Meanwhile, Italy sent 12 migrants to processing centers in Albania this week, but had to bring them back after a judge said the move was illegal.

Poland will temporarily bar refugees from claiming asylum in the country after crossing the border from neighboring Belarus, amid warnings that Russia and its allies are using migrants to try to destabilize the EU. Speaking on Saturday at a meeting of the governing Civic Coalition party, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that a new migration strategy would include “the temporary territorial suspension of the right to asylum.” “I will demand this,” insisted Tusk, a former president of the European Council, pre-empting challenges from Brussels over the legality of the move. “I will demand recognition in Europe for this decision.” According to Tusk, the bloc’s asylum rights are being actively abused by Belarus and Russia. “This right to asylum is used exactly against the essence of the right to asylum,” Tusk said. Tens of thousands of would-be immigrants, many from the Middle East and Africa, have attempted to cross the border into Poland via Belarus in recent years, with as many as 2,500 reported last month and more than 26,000 so far this year. Belarusian border guards have been seen actively aiding the groups as part of what Tusk has previously branded a “hybrid war” tactic designed to drive anti-migration sentiment and tie up state resources. Poland has already begun investing in stronger border infrastructure to try to deter irregular crossings. A special border zone has been established to give tougher powers to local authorities. In September, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’Flaherty, warned of “the challenges posed by the instrumentalization of migration and destabilizing actions of the Belarusian authorities on the Polish-Belarusian border.” However, O’Flaherty said, Poland’s policy of returning migrants without assessing their potential claims “does not allow for full respect of international human rights standards” and “exposes them to the risk of serious violations of the rights protected by the European Convention on Human Rights.” The European Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment from POLITICO. Belarus stands accused of offering visas to desperate people in war-torn countries like Syria and encouraging them to fly to the country as a transit stop on the way to the EU. The country’s authoritarian president, one of Moscow’s closest allies, said in 2021 that he encouraged migrants to try to cross the frontier. “It’s up to you,” Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told a crowd of people sleeping rough at the border, “go through. Go!” Amnesty International warns that asylum seekers, “including families with children, often in need of immediate help, have been beaten with batons and rifle butts and threatened with security dogs by Belarusian forces” as they attempt to cross into safety in Poland.