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Tens of thousands of demonstrators crossed the capital of Hungary on Saturday while a gathering of prohibited rights of 2SLGBTQ + swelled in a mass demonstration against the government.
Crowds filled a square near the town hall of Budapest before leaving through the city, some waving rainbow flags, others wearing panels mocking Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
“This is much more, not only homosexuality … This is the last moment to defend our rights,” said Eszter Rein Bodi, one of the walkers.
“None of us are free until everyone is free,” said a sign.
Small groups of counter-demonstrators tried to disturb the parade, but the police distant them and diverted the road from walking to avoid clashes.
The nationalist government of Orban has gradually reduced the rights of the 2SLGBTQ + community over the past decade, and its legislators have adopted a law in March which allows the prohibition of the marches of pride, citing the need to protect children.
Opponents see the movement as part of a broader repression of democratic freedoms before a national election next year, when Orban will face a strong opposition challenger.
The organizers said that the participants arrived from 30 countries, including 70 members of the European Parliament.
More than 30 embassies have expressed their support for the president of March and the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, called on the Hungarian authorities to let the parade go ahead.
Seventy Hungarian Civil Society groups, including Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, International Transparency Hungary and the Hungarian Helsinki Commission, published an open letter to support on Friday, affirming that the law which led to the prohibition of the police “is used to intimidate the whole of society”.
The mayor is under March
“The right to assembly is a fundamental human right, and I do not think it should be banned. It is not because someone does not like the reason why you are going on the street, or that they do not agree with this, you still have the right to do so,” said Krisztina Aranyi, another walker.
The mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karacsony, tried to bypass the law by organizing the march as a municipal event, which, according to him, does not need a permit. The police, however, prohibited the event, arguing that they were within the reach of the Child Protection Act.
Orban, whose government promotes a Christian-conservative program, provided some clues on Friday on what participants can expect when he warned against “legal consequences” for organization and participation in walking.
Earlier this week, the Minister of Justice Bance Tuzson warned in a letter sent to certain foreign embassies to Budapest that the organization of a prohibited event is liable to one year in prison, while attending a crime account.
The law which allows the prohibition of pride allows the police to impose fines and to use facial recognition cameras to identify the people who attend it. Asked about the threat of a one -year prison sentence, Karacsony said on Friday at a press conference that such a penalty would only increase his popularity.
“But I can’t take it seriously,” he said.
Make the march a key subject of political discourse has enabled the Orban government to resume the initiative of the opposition and to mobilize its voter base, said Zoltan Novak, analyst at the Center for Fair Political Analysis Think Tank.
“In the past 15 years, Fidesz has decided which subjects have dominated the political world,” he said, noting that it has become more difficult because the Orban party has faced an increasing challenge on the part of the Tisza party of the opposition leader Peter Magyar, who has a 15-point lead on the Fidesz d’Orban in a recent survey.
Tisza, who avoided taking a strong position on the issues of homosexual rights, did not specify in response to Reuters wondering if she thought that the march of pride was legal, but said that the people frequented deserved the protection of the state.
“Peter Magyar called the Hungarian authorities and the police to protect the Hungarian people this Saturday, as well as other days also, even if it means opposing the arbitrariness of power,” said the party’s media office. Magyar himself would not assist.
