Police ban Budapest Pride march in Hungary, but mayor vows it will go ahead

The police prohibited the annual march of Budapest Pride of Hungary later this month, causing a provocative response from the Liberal mayor Gergely Karacsony.

“The town hall of Budapest will organize the march of Budapest Pride as a local event on June 28, period,” swore the mayor.

This is the last turn of a confrontation of chat and mice which stoses the government of the Fidesz of the nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, supported by the city police, against the LGBTQ community of Hungary and its supporters, with a certain legal support of the courts.

The annual march of pride has been in doubt since Orban announced in February that it would not take place this year, and a law was then adopted by restricting the rallies if they violate the laws on child protection on the public promotion of homosexuality.

Karacsony said that the police were not allowed to ban a “day of freedom”, organized by the municipal council as a umbrella event for pride, because it does not fall under the rules of freedom of assembly.

Tens of thousands of people in Hungary and abroad should participate in the June 28 event.

“They could also try to ban a unicorns procession,” wrote the mayor on Facebook.

Under the new law on rallies, adopted in March, all those identified by the police as participants using facial recognition software could be sentenced to a fine between £ 14 and 420.

“The protection of children prevails over all other laws. And in this spirit, we have changed the laws, we do politics and we will act in the future,” said Fidesz, Tamas Menczer, in News Portal 444.

“Pride has nothing to do with freedom of expression or freedom of assembly … Pride is a festival, the festival of a certain sexual community, which is not suitable to be seen by children.”

Viktor Orban announced in his annual speech on the state of the nation last February that the organizers of pride “did not need to disturb this year”. This was followed the following month by a law restricting the right to freedom of assembly, if it fell due to the law on child protection 2021.

To get around it, the Rainbow Mission Foundation, which organizes pride in Hungary and other human rights groups, announced a series of events on June 28 in proudness.

But they made the authorities guess what event would mark pride itself. Police attempts to ban these events were thwarted by the Supreme Court of Hungary, Curia, in two decisions so far.

The mayor of Budapest then appeared on June 16 with the spokesperson for Budapest Pride, Mate Hegedus, in a video on a joint Facebook, announcing their day of freedom, with events early in the morning in the evening.

The central event was to be a procession through the city and the event “is not a pride,” the mayor wrote to the police.

“There will be no trucks, no dancers, no sexuality in any form.” The goal, he argued, was simply “to make the national capital free”.

This is what the police are now trying to prevent, on the grounds that minor passers -by can attend the procession, regardless of the age of those who really participate, how they are dressed or what banners they wear.

This would violate the law on child protection, said Budapest police chief Tamas Terdik, in a 16 -page document issued by the police, justifying the ban.

So what will happen on June 28?

Human Human Rights Group The Hungarian Committee of Helsinki (HHC), advised anyone who left the day to refuse to pay All fines on site.

They suggest to anyone who receives a notification by post to request a right of appeal in person with the police or in court if it fails.

The more people participate, the less the police will be likely that the police will try to try this, maintains the HHC, because it could create a massive backwards for the police and the courts.