Prime Minister Orban threw a hissy fit and missed his countries’ Euro 2020 match against Germany after backlash against his governments new laws
By Thomas Ansell
The Gemeente Groningen last night lit up the city hall on the Grote Markt in rainbow colours in solidarity with tens of cities across Europe. The cities (and now several national governments) are making their performative opposition against Victor Orban, the Hunagrian PM, whose right-wing Fidesz party brought in a rabidly anti-LGBTQI+ law last week.
The law bans anyone ‘gay’ from appearing in any media or material designed for school education, or aimed at the under-18’s. The law effectively means that any non-cishet people can only appear on Hungarian TV after the watershed.
The row was sparked following a request from the city of Munich to light up its famous Allianz Arena in rainbow colours to support non-cishet folks across Europe after Hungary’s new law. The lighting up of the stadium would have coincided with Germany playing Hungary at the Euro 2020 football tournament.
UEFA, European football’s governing body, turned down the request because it was ‘political’, raising questions about whether someone’s sexuality and indeed existence is ‘political’, or just an expression of their self.
In any case, UEFA turned down the rainbow request, leading to cities and stadiums across Germany and Europe lighting up to give Orban’s new law the proverbial rainbow middle finger.
On the Gemeente’s twitter account (where our header photo is sourced from) said ‘liebe Freunde aus München, wir sind dabei!’ (‘to our friends in Munich, we stand with you’).
