EU Abuse

European unification must be kept free from socio-political ideologisation. A commentary by Rainhard Kloucek, Secretary-General of Paneuropa Austria.

Hungary wants to enshrine in its constitution that a mother is a woman and a father is a man. Strange, one might think. These Hungarians want to write something into the constitution that is clear to every small child. Or has a man ever given birth to a child and thus become a mother?

But it is not that obvious. For there is gender ideology, according to which there is no biological sex at all, but that it is all merely a social construct. This ideology now occupies a dominant position. Hungary is therefore reprimanded by European institutions.

And then there is the issue of the rule of law. While it is not directly related to gender ideology, Hungary is also in the pillory because of it. Even when it comes to, for example, control mechanisms for the allocation of EU funds, the issues become intertwined on both sides. The Hungarian government can thus claim at home that an ideology is being imposed on the country under the guise of the rule of law, an ideology that has nothing to do with Hungary and its traditions. Since Viktor Orbán has already bid farewell to liberal democracy, it is easy for his opponents to beat him with the argument of the liberal rule of law. After all, he blocks rule of law criteria for the allocation of EU funds.

However, the representatives in the European Parliament and the Commission who wield the gender cudgel under the cloak of the rule of law have also strayed far from the idea of the liberal rule of law.

For it is not an ideological cudgel. It does not impose notions of happiness and welfare on its citizens, and thus no gender ideology either. It is rooted in the greatest possible freedom, and is therefore, by its very nature, free of ideology.

If this principle of the liberal rule of law were the prevailing opinion today, the view of the true problems with the rule of law would be much clearer. However, with the ideologisation of European unification, the EU is being abused and society divided. This does not serve European unification well, which, for geopolitical reasons alone, is a matter of reason.

c Feature image: European Community 1996