On Monday, April 14, Hungary’s parliament overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment allowing the government to ban public events for the LGBTQ+ community and officially recognising only two sexes. Activists described the changes as a “significant escalation” in the government’s slide toward authoritarianism.

Proposed by the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the amendment passed along party lines with 140 votes in favour and 21 against. It codifies the country’s recent ban on Pride, which also allowed the use of facial-recognition technology to identify participants.

Moreover, the amendment enshrines in the constitution the legal recognition of only two sexes, male and female, providing a legal basis for denying the existence of gender-diverse identities and intersex individuals. Another provision also allows the “temporary” stripping of citizenship from dual nationals, a move that is thought to be targeted at Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros, who frequently features in populist conspiracy theories.

Ahead of the vote on the constitutional amendment, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Hungary’s capital to protest in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community. Some protesters also attempted to block the entrance to parliament before being removed by police. Demonstrators were chanting: “We will not allow ourselves to be transformed into Putin’s Russia”.

Opposition lawmaker Timea Szabo, who was among the protesters, said: “When we chained ourselves up during the constitution’s first overhaul in 2011, we never thought that 14 years later, we would have to do the same thing.”

A 19-year-old transgender woman told reporters that she joined the rally to stand up against the government seeking “to eliminate transgender people” and “hide what they don’t like, just as in Russia”.

Critics of the constitutional amendment curbing LGBTQ+ rights said that the legal changes further erode democratic rights in Hungary, pushing the nation closer to the kind of authoritarianism seen in Putin’s Russia.

“You could consider this soft Putinism,” said Szabolcs Pek, chief analyst at the think tank Iranytu Intezet. “People are not falling out of the window, but the government is increasingly limiting the space for opposition politicians, journalists and civil society.”

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a civil rights group, said the amendment is a means of “legislating fear” in the country. “These laws represent a significant escalation in the government’s efforts to suppress dissent, weaken human rights protection and consolidate its grip on power,” its statement reads.