10 days · 11 summary articles
The Paris administrative court on Thursday ordered the immediate reinstatement of Bulcsu Bognár, a researcher fired by the Catholic Pázmány Péter University in Budapest for studying LGBTQ+ social perceptions, after a unanimous appeals ruling found the dismissal discriminatory. The university had terminated Bognár in 2024 following the publication of his peer-reviewed paper in an international journal, which the administration deemed contrary to “Catholic ethos.” The appeals court, in a definitive judgment delivered on 18 June 2026, rejected the university’s argument that as a church institution it could set its own standards, affirming that the dismissal violated anti-discrimination law. Bognár’s legal team hailed the decision as a landmark affirmation of academic freedom, while the university has not indicated whether it will appeal further.
The ruling comes amid a broader European backlash against restrictions on LGBTQ+ research and expression. In France, the far-right magazine *Frontières* and its director Erik Tegnér were handed a six-month suspended prison sentence on Thursday for publishing the names, addresses and photographs of immigration lawyers, labeling them “ideological militants” responsible for the migration crisis. The Paris tribunal found the 2025 special issue violated privacy laws and incited harassment. Meanwhile, in Iran, singer Parastoo Ahmadi was sentenced to 74 lashes for performing an unveiled online concert, with eight musicians accompanying her also receiving flogging penalties.
In France, the political temperature rose as Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise (LFI) filed an emergency appeal against the Paris police prefecture’s decision to ban a Sunday concert in Place de la République. The prefecture cited unspecified “risks to public order,” though organisers insist Médine and Soso Maness—whose presence was not on the original bill—were never scheduled to perform. LFI denounced what it called a “democratic scandal” and accused the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France (CRIF) of exerting undue influence. The concert ban follows the government’s push for two new security laws targeting unlicensed free parties, which critics argue are designed to silence alternative cultural spaces ahead of Sunday’s Fête de la Musique.
Across Europe, courts have also weighed in on free expression and institutional accountability. In Romania, Timișoara mayor and USR party leader Dominic Fritz lost his final appeal against a national integrity agency ruling that he was in a conflict of interest, a decision the supreme court confirmed on Thursday. In Sweden, a Stockholm court sentenced Poya Shafie to life imprisonment for his leadership role in the Foxtrot criminal network. And in Turkey, a social media campaign under the hashtag #AbdullahTırpanAcilTahliye is demanding the emergency release of 74-year-old Abdullah Tırpan, a Gülen movement detainee whose family warns he is dying in prison.