BUDAPESTAAbout 100,000 people marched Saturday in what organizers described as the largest LGBTQ+ Pride rally in Hungary’s history, defying police orders and a government prohibition in an open criticism of Prime Minister Viktor Orb n’s administration.
After Orb n’s right-wing populist ruling party banned participation in March, marchers risked police involvement and hefty fines to take part in the 30th annual Budapest Pride.
Before crossing the capital’s Erzs bet Bridge over the Danube River, the march started at Budapest City Hall and made its way into the heart of the city. While members of Hungary’s LGBTQ+ community and large crowds of supporters waved rainbow and anti-government flags and danced to music, police rerouted the throng from its intended path to keep it far from a tiny group of far-right counterprotesters.
Even though the Pride march was illegal, one marcher, Blanka Moln r, said it was an amazing feeling that more people had shown up than ever before. She asserted that the need for Hungarians to protest the government’s practices was growing, even for those who had never visited Pride.
“This isn’t just about LGBQT+ rights,” she continued; it’s also about the freedom to congregate, to stand up for one another, and to resist oppression by the government.
As the popularity of the longest-serving leader of the European Union declines in the polls and a new opposition group takes the lead, the enormous scale of the march—which the government in Hungary had maintained would no longer be allowed—was viewed as a serious setback to Orb n’s reputation.
Pride, a celebration of LGBTQ+ visibility and the fight for equal rights, has been criticized by Orb and his party for violating children’s rights to moral and spiritual development, which a recent constitutional amendment ruled superseded other fundamental protections like the right to peaceful assembly.
Holding or attending events that depict or promote homosexuality to youngsters under the age of eighteen is illegal, according to a law that was expedited through parliament in March. Orbn has previously stated that the ordinance specifically targeted Budapest Pride.
Before the march, authorities set up more cameras around the city center, and they were supposed to utilize facial recognition software to identify anyone who attended the prohibited gathering. The new rule imposes fines of up to 200,000 Hungarian forints ($586) for anyone found attending Pride.
The mania that has erupted in Hungary over the Pride march in recent months, according to marcher Andrs Faludy, is incredibly pitiful. It’s absurd.
“I’m so furious that I could use a more offensive term, but I won’t,” he continued.
The prohibition was the most recent in a string of crackdowns on LGBTQ+ rights by the government of Orb n, which has already essentially prohibited same-sex marriage and adoption and prohibited transgender people from altering their sex on official records.
Citing the new law, police denied organizers’ repeated pleas to register the Pride march in recent weeks. However, Gergely Karcsony, the mayor of Budapest, joined the organizers and said that it will be staged as a distinct municipal event, which he stated did not need police sanction.
However, the Hungarian government steadfastly maintained that it would be illegal to host the Pride march, even if it were supported by the city. Karcsony was told this week by Hungary’s justice minister that planning Pride or urging others to go might result in up to a year in jail.
Numerous marchers stated that they thought the Pride march symbolized a fight for their nation’s democratic future as well as for the rights of sexual minorities.
According to participant Zs fia Szek, the large turnout demonstrated that a significant portion of the populace wanted Hungary to choose a different course.
“I believe that a large number of people taking to the streets is the only way we can bring about change,” she stated.
