The Hungarian Parliament approved on Tuesday an amendment to the constitution stipulating that the mother is a woman and the father is a man, daily Magyar Nemzet reports .
The relevant paragraph reads “Hungary protects the institution of marriage as a cohabitation between a man and a woman, based on voluntary decision, and the family as the basis for the survival of the nation. The basis of the family relationship is the marriage and the parent-child relationship. The mother is a woman, the father is a man.”
Deputies defined the concept of public money and also re-regulated the constitutional rules of the special legal order. Mentioning “exclusionary family policy”, opposition politician of the reformist DK and former Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány did not take part in the vote.
Both in her introduction of the law in parliament and her Facebook page, Justice Minister Judit Varga said the amendment was not aimed against any specific group or groups.
“The aim is not to undermine the rights of certain social groups, but to protect the rights of our children. The guarantees included in the Constitution today provide a stable basis for Hungary to remain a strong, secure community in the future. Hungary first!” Varga wrote.
The legislature passed the ninth amendment to the Constitution at the initiative of the government with 134 yes votes, 45 no votes and five abstentions. The constitution now stipulates that the mother is a woman and the father is a man, thus protecting the child’s right to self-identity according to his or her birth gender and ensuring that he or she receives education in accordance with the values based on Hungary’s constitutional identity and Christian culture.
Parliament has also amended the definition of public money, clearly defining the rules of public interest trusts performing a public task.
The third change was the reduction of the cases of special legal order from a previous six to three, which are now refer to a “state of war”, “state of emergency” and a “hazardous situation”. In all three cases, the amendment gives the government the power to issue regulations, thus eliminating the regulatory role of the National Defense Council and the President of the Republic in times of emergency.
According to the DK party, the amendment, instead of serving the protection of families “is in fact [intended] to put Fidesz’s hypocritical and exclusionary family policy in writing”.
Title image: Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga. (source: Facebook)
