A Hungarian bookshop has evaded a fine for violating a controversial LGBTQ law owing to a missing comma in the legislation.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s nationalist government passed the law against “promoting” homosexuality to minors in 2021, drawing criticism at home and abroad, including from Brussels.
For months, the law had hardly been enforced. But in July, bookshop chain Lira was fined 12 million forints (31,000 euros, $33,000) for selling the graphic novel “Heartstopper” without plastic wrapping.
The authorities said the teen romance by bestselling British author Alice Oseman about two high school boys should have been wrapped so that children could not see it.
Lira sued arguing that due to a missing comma, the legislation only required sealed packaging for books “sold separated from other products”.
A Budapest court annulled the fine on Thursday, according to media reports.
The relevant legislative passage “can only be interpreted in one way according to Hungarian grammatical rules,” the court said in a statement seen by AFP on Friday.
Krisztian Nyary, Lira’s creative director, welcomed the ruling but warned of possible further legal problems.
“The legislation has many other difficult-to-understand, even contradictory references. This has not been resolved, so it continues to make life difficult for the book trade and the book industry,” he told AFP.
Hungarian state museums have also run into difficulties implementing the law.
In November, the culture minister fired the director of the Hungarian National Museum for “failing to comply” with a government order.
It had been ordered to stop under-18s from attending a prestigious annual World Press Photo exhibition, which showed a series of pictures of a community of older LGBTQ people in the Philippines.
But the museum stated it “cannot legally enforce” the order as it cannot legally ask for identity cards.
An EU infringement procedure against the legislation — which Hungary insists aims at “protecting children” — is underway, with the European Commission alleging it breaches its law.
