With MEPs and European ministers ready to risk fines and heightened police surveillance should Budapest’s Pride March go ahead later this month, the city’s Mayor, Gergely Karacsony, has vowed to defy a police ban on the event and to ensure it takes place as scheduled.
Citing the need for public order, the police yesterday announced a ban on the “demonstration”, invoking a law passed earlier in the year that forbids gatherings contrary to Hungary’s 2021 legislation, which prohibits discussion of “homosexuality and gender reassignment” with minors.
A subsequent constitutional amendment asserts that “the right of children to proper physical, mental and moral development” outweighs “all other rights”, including the right of assembly.
According to the police, the Pride March could expose under-18-year-olds “to behaviours prohibited by law”. Were the march to take place, they insist it should be organised in a location out of the sight of children.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been curbing LGBT+ rights over his years in office, claiming to do so in the interests of “protecting children”. In a bid to bypass Orbán’s controversial legislation, Budapest’s Mayor Karacsony announced on Monday that the municipality would take charge of organising the 28 June event since “official permission” is not required for such a “municipal event”.
Pride March spokesman Maté Hegedu stressed “our constitutional right to gather peacefully” and vowed that “we will protect” the LGBT+ community as well as “those who are afraid and remain silent”.
Orbán’s latest restrictions have sounded alarms in Brussels and many EU member states and triggered multiple protests in Budapest.
Dozens of MEPs from left and centre – including centrist President Valérie Hayer and Greens leader Terry Reintke – are expected to show their support by participating in the Pride March. According to event organisers, the European Commissioner for Equality, Hadja Lahbib, and ministers from European countries are also likely to join in.
