The rise of the far-right in Europe and the LGBTQ+ community
Hate, fear, and erosion of rights – this is the new face of Europe. Across the continent, far-right politics are gaining ground, turning back decades of progress and threatening the safety and dignity of LGBTIQ+ people.
Europe once stood as a beacon of equality and progress. But today, the light is dimming. From Italy to Slovakia, Hungary to Austria, more andmore governments are embracing conservative, exclusionary agendas. They promise their voters a “return to tradition”, but what they’re really offering is regression.
Hungary and Slovakia have pledged to enshrine in their constitutions that there are only two genders, male and female. Italy, Bulgaria and Romania are pushing to erase LGBTIQ+ topics and CSE (Comprehensive Sexual Education) from schools altogether Under the guise of “protecting children” or “defending values”, these policies strip away to the basic human rights of millions.
To some, these changes might sound harmless, even moral. But they’re not. They fuel hate, discrimination and internalised shame. They isolate an entire community:
“And what we see is that, more and more, laws are being designed not to protect the fundamental rights of people nor to address any genuine societal needs, but purely to marginalise the community” – Katrin Hungendubel, ILGA –Europe, to The Guardian.
The far-right doesn’t protect anyone. It divides, silences and erases. Europe must decide: will we move forward or let hate rewrite our future?
The crackdown hurts everybody
The rollback of LGBTIQ+ rights in Europe is violent. It’s fuelling more hate and discriminations for queer people . According to the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights queer people are facing a surge in hate crimes and assaults across Member States. Schools, institutions, and even laws that should protect them are often failing to do so.
- A survey conducted in 2024 paints a worrying picture: 2 in 3 queer students experienced being bullied at school, up from 1 in 2 in 2019;
- Over 1 in 3 face discrimination in daily life for who they are. Altough slightlyimproved since 2019, only 1 in 10 victims report what happens to them.
- More than 1 in 10 experienced physical violence in the 5 years before the survey, a number that keeps rising. .
- Over 1 in 3 intersex people said they were attacked, a figure that reveals a horritying pattern of targeted hate.
These aren’t just statistics, they’re lives.
And they show a Europe that’s becoming increasingly unsafe for LGBTIQ+ people.
But the truth is: this crackdown hurts everyone.
When human rights are restricted for one group, society as a whole becomes weaker, colder, more fearful.
Even those who don’t identify as queer or intersex are caught in this growing culture of intolerance and division.
The far-right’s war on diversity isn’t protecting “family values”, it’s destroying our shared humanity.
What happened lately
Let’s talk about what’s happening right now in Europe. In just a few months, three EU Member States have taken contrete steps to roll backLGBTIQ+ rights, passing law that silence and criminalise queer lives.
- Slovakia: A Constitutional Step Backwards
On September 26th, 2025, now known among activists as ‘the dark day’, Slovakia passed a constitutional amendment that targets LGBTQ+people directly. rolled back by decades. The Parliament voted to recognise only Slovakian constitution recognizes only two genders, male and female, and defines marriage as “a unique union between a man and a woman” and to ban adoption by same-sex couples. This amendment, pushed by populist PM Robert Fico, also prohibits legal gender recognition, stripping trans and non-binary people of their identity in law. Since returning to power in 2023, Fico’s government has made the persecution of LGBTIQ+ citizens a political tool, normalising hate as policy.
- Italy: Silencing Comprehensive Sexual Education
On October 15th 2025, Italy passed a new law restricying discussions on sexuality and gender in schools. Under the guise of “protecting parental rights”, the law requires parental consent — or, for older students, self-consent — for any lesson or activity related to sex education. For younger children, from kindergarten to middle school, these topics are virtually banned from classrooms. This move reinforces Giorgia Meloni’s long-standing agenda: undermining equality by erasing conversations about it. And once again, the far right uses the fabricated notion of “gender theory” — a term with no scientific or academic basis — to stoke fear and justify censorship.
- Hungary: Banning Pride, again.
In Hungary, Viktor Orbán’s government has banned yet another Pride march, this time in Pécs on October 4th, 2025 — following the ban on Budapest Pride in June.
Authorities declared the private assembly a criminal offence under the Hungarian Criminal Code, even threatening organisers with imprisonment. This is just another instance of the Orban government trying to silence queer people while violating their fundamental rights. For years, Orbán’s regime has systematically worked to silence queer voices, criminalise public visibility, and dismantle the last spaces of resistance.
These three stories are not isolated.
They’re symptoms of a wider trend, a Europe where hate is becoming law, and silence is becoming the norm.
And if we don’t speak up, these “dark days” will multiply.
The European Union needs to step up
Silence is complicity.
As far-right movements tighten their grip across Europe, the European Union’s muted response has become impossible to ignore.
Member States are passing laws that strip queer people of theirrights, restrict educ ation and letting hate and discrimination spread like the plague. And yet, Brussels remains largely silent. This inaction doesn’t just allow discrimination to spread, it enables it.
In this hostile climate, the EU can no longer look away.
We call on EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and EU Commissioner for Equality Hadja Labib and European Institutions to take a firm stance, not just in words and strategies but in action.
The European Union was built on the promise of dignity, equality, and justice for all. Those principles are now under attack — not from the outside, but from within its own borders.
The EU has both the power and the duty to act:
to hold Member States accountable,
to defend queer citizens from discriminatory laws,
and to stop this far-right wave before it becomes the norm.
This is not just about LGBTQ+ rights — it’s about the soul of Europe.
If equality falls, democracy follows.
