Gergely Gulyás, Head of the Prime Minister's Office, said the referendum on child protection will be held at the end of 2021 or early 2022, and is expected to strengthen Hungary's position.
According to MTI, Gulyás said the prime minister had announced the five-question referendum on child protection in response to the events of the past weeks, which the government saw as an “attack from Brussels”. In response to a question, the minister said that if the referendum will be valid, the regulations will have to stay in force for three years. The government will specify the reinforced laws at a later date, and will announce whether further legislation has become necessary.
Gulyás said there were no cases where gender reassignment surgery was promoted for minors in Hungary, and said the amendment was designed to prevent such cases. The issue is a “fight the whole of central Europe is engaged in, where we have to show that the region’s culture, values and identity are as much a part of the EU as that of Western Europe,” he said. A successful EU is “unimaginable” in the long term without their coexistence, he said. A referendum on migration in 2016 contributed to the government’s success in stopping the EU from forcing mandatory resettlement quotas on Hungary, he said.