Around 100,000 march in Budapest Pride event in defiance of Hungary’s ban : NPR

The participants in The Pride March cross the Elisabeth bridge in Budapest, Hungary in Hungary on Saturday.

Rudolf Karancsi / AP

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Rudolf Karancsi / AP

Budapest, Hungary – About 100,000 people challenged a public ban and police orders on Saturday to walk in what the organizers called the largest LGBTQ + Pride event in the history of Hungary in an open reprimand by the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

The walkers played with a potential police intervention and heavy fines to participate in the 30th annual pride of Budapest, which was prohibited by a law adopted in March by the populist revolutionary party of Orbán.

The walk started at the town hall of Budapest and injured the city center before crossing the Erzsébet bridge in the capital on the Danube river. Police have diverted the crowd from its itinerary planned to separate it from a small group of far-right counterprotesters, while members of the LGBTQ + community of Hungary and a large number of supporters danced to music and agitated rainbow and anti-government flags.

The massive size of the march, of which the government for months insisted would no longer be authorized in Hungary, was considered a major blow to the prestige of Orbán, while the popularity of the oldest leader in the European Union collapses in the polls where a new opposition force has taken the lead.

Some participants said that walking was not part of defending the fundamental rights of sexual minorities, but also addressed what they considered an accelerated repression of democratic processes under the reign of Orbán.

Orbán and his party insisted that pride, a celebration of LGBTQ + visibility and the struggle for equal rights, was a violation of children’s rights to moral and spiritual development – rights that a recent declared constitutional amendment has taken the right on other fundamental rights, including that of gather peacefully.

The law accelerated by Parliament in March made an offense to organize or attend events which “portray or promote” homosexuality to minors under the age of 18. Orbán clearly indicated that Budapest Pride was the explicit objective of the law.

The authorities installed additional cameras throughout the city center before March and had to use facial recognition tools to identify people who attend the prohibited event. According to the new law, being taken in the process of participating in pride could lead to fines of up to 200,000 Hungarian toes ($ 586).

The ban was the last repression of LGBTQ + rights by the Government of Orbán, which has already effectively prohibited homosexual adoption and homosexual marriage and prohibits transgender people from changing their sex in official documents.

Police has rejected several requests from the organizers in recent weeks to record the march of pride, citing the recent law. But the mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony, joined the organizers and said that he would be considered a separate municipal event – something he said that does not require police approval.

But the government of Hungary remained firm, insisting that holding the march of pride, even if it is sponsored by the city, would be illegal. The Minister of Justice of Hungary this week warned Karácsony that the organization of pride or encouraging people to attend would be liable to one year in prison.

More than 70 members of the European Parliament, as well as other officials from European countries, participated in the March of Saturday. Hadja Lahbib, the EU commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management, said earlier than “all eyes are on Budapest” while pride walkers challenge the government’s ban.