Hungary celebrates today, International Pride Day, its manifestation for the most complex LGTBIQ+ rights. Although the event, which has been organizing in the Hungarian capital for 30 years, has been prohibited and does not have a police authorization, it is expected to be the most massive in the country’s history.
Will Budapest’s pride be celebrated?
Yes. The mayor of the capital, Gergely Karáscany, said yesterday that. It is an alternative call, since the officer was vetoed by the government of the ultra -rightist Viktor Orbán, based on a law that restricts the right of meeting to supposedly protect minors. Given this situation, the first mayor of Budapest raised an alternative municipal event, but was not authorized by the police. “This Saturday, or we are all free. Or no one will be free,” said the mayor yesterday, accompanied by and the vice president of the European Parliament, the Romanian Nicolae ștefanuta. “We encourage citizens to go to the march. There will be no fines, punishments or reprisals,” he added.
Why have they banned it?
Although LGTBIQ+ people have always been in the Diana de Orbán and their party (Fidesz’s ultraconservatives, who control the government for 15 years), the offensive has intensified in the last five years. The veto to pride is its maximum expression.
The normative key to the prohibition is an anti-LGTBIQ+ law that was approved in June 2021, imitating a similar promoted in Russia by Vladimir Putin, of whom Orbán is one of the main allies in the EU. It is the call propaganda lawwhich caused the European Commission to initiate a sanctioning procedure to the country. In addition, the case is in the EU Court of Justice (TJUE), which will predictably issue a ruling at the end of this year.
The application of propaganda law It has led to modifying other regulations, such as the protection of childhood. The Ultra Executive has censored in the public space any mention “to the change of sex, the deviation regarding identity according to sex of birth, as well as homosexuality.” In March this year, Orbán took another step. “The propaganda law It is expanding to a new sphere: not only limits freedom of expression, now also restricts the right to meet. It justifies it in the protection of children’s rights, ”explains Eszter Polgári, lawyer and legal responsible for, the main organization of the rights of the Hungary Collective.
They veto the pride, but there are two events of the extreme right …
In the pride of Budapest the nationalist group of the extreme right HVIM (Youth Movement for the 64 counties) has appeared. These ultras, after discovering the route of the march that the City Council had convened – which was kept secret for security reasons and to avoid boycothing -, “a family event”, the same day, at the same time and with a similar route. Budapest police have given its approval, since pride had not obtained it.
In addition, the Mi Hazánk party (our homeland movement), even more to the right of Fidesz and supports Orbán in Parliament, has called concentrations in all Budapest bridges. A form of “national resistance”, in the words of the vice president of the formation, Előd Novák. On the other hand, two other extremist groups have threatened to raise their own events, but there is still no confirmed.
“In Hungary it is easier to organize a Nazi manifestation than one that defends human rights,” said the mayor of Budapest.
Is it safe to go to the appointment?
The tension in the capital is high. There is nervousness among organizers and participants. On the one hand, there is a part of the prohibited pride tour that runs through an area of narrow streets, the beginning, from the City Council park. On the other, at one point you have to cross the Danube through a narrow bridge – that of freedom; The pride motto is Freedom and love cannot be prohibited-, which will be taken by the militants and supporters of my hazánk.
“We are frankly worried. The situation is very uncertain and changes every hour,” recognizes an activist who asks for anonymity.
International solidarity has been “overwhelming,” said Budapest Pride organizers. There are representatives of dozens of European countries, of the EU itself, as well as organizations throughout the area.
The European Parliament has made some security recommendations for the 72 Europarliamentarians who have attended the appointment of socialist and democratic families, the Greens, the Left and Renew, in addition to the only two of the European Popular Party, the formation of the president of the commission, Ursula von der Leyen. These are: “Follow police instructions. Keep together. Do not react to provocations. Be caute in social networks. View neutral clothing, without making visible symbols or flags LGTBIQ+ or the European Union.”
What does the EU say?
“The Hungary authorities must allow the celebration of pride this Saturday. It is important that it develops without fear. Criminalize pride, its organizers, or punish them goes against everything we believe as a European Union,” said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission this Thursday at a press conference. Although at first von der Leyen asked his commissioners to avoid going to the prohibited pride of Budapest, to avoid an institutional shock with Orbán, finally, he has come to the appointment.
“I travel to Budapest to celebrate our European values and our rich diversity. As a curator of equality, I will be next to the people LGTBIQ+ on the occasion of pride. Manifest yourself for your rights is one of the fundamental freedoms of our union. Now we must defend all this. It is who we are as Europeans,” said Lahbib. “Today are the people LGTBIQ+, but tomorrow it can be anyone. The EU is not neutral in hate,” said the curator, who despite being in Budapest and planning to go to the start of alternative pride, will not macate for the capital, as Von der Leyen asked.
Why is Yolanda Díaz in Budapest?
The Second Vice President and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, announced a few days ago that she would go to vetoed pride. “We are the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, and myself on behalf of the Government of Spain to say that human rights are not touched,” he said yesterday at the Budapest City Council. “Tomorrow, all to the streets of Budapest to claim.”
Urtasun was one of the first to announce his presence in the appointment. They are also in Budapest, among others, the socialist deputy Víctor Gutiérrez; ; The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, in addition to representatives of more Madrid, such as Eduardo Rubiño, or the leader of the European socialists, Iratxe García.
