Rule of law and equality: «Illimited» executive power in response to COVID-19 crisis and LGBTI rights infringement in Hungary and Poland .

Abstract

In this paper we will analyse the relationship between Rule of Law, equality as a fundamental right and LGBTI rights in the European Union. First, we will conceptualise the Rule of Law and, as a content of its thick version, the role played by fundamental rights and, concretely, equality and LGBTI rights as a part of it. After that, we will use the examples given by the recent reforms in Hungary, where the possibility of legal gender change has been deleted and the Fundamental Law has been amended to prohibit LGBTI adoption, and in Poland, where LGBTI-free zones have been created; produced in a previous context of illiberal reforms, worsened by the governmental response of both States to face COVID-19, which has been used to seize more power. Our goal is to analyse the consequences that the Rule of Law erosion has over the protection of LGBTI rights.