The LGTBIQ+ community will plant the prohibition of the pride parade on the part of the ultra government of Viktor Orban With one Great demonstration this Saturday in Budapest. Challenging a new law in Hungary that denies the right of protest to the collective and the threat of the extreme rightthe mayor of Budapest, the environmentalist Gergely Karáross, risks to go to jail for receiving the progress of pride, which will begin at two noon in the center of the capital. Mayors, deputies and human rights defenders throughout Europe, as well as several Catalan and Spanish politicians, will attend to show their support. “That will also give us security to us,” says Acn Dorottya Rédai, director of the Labrisz Lesbian Association.
The mayor of Budapest has warned that the journey of the protest could suffer last minute modifications to avoid clashes with the Burns of the extreme right, They have obtained police authorization, unlike the pride parade.
Rédai admits that the situation remains “very confusing” legally due to judicial resources and discrepancies between the Budapest City Council and the Orbán government. “The mayor is playing it,” he says. The protesters are also exposed to sentences of up to one year in prison or fines of up to 500 euros.
Orbán has threatened to undertake legal reprisals against the organizers and assistants, but has also warned that the police can disperse the demonstration. “We are adults and recommend that each one decides what they want to do, respect the norms … and, if it does not, to assume the legal consequences that that entails,” Orbán said in statements this Friday to Hungarian state radio.
Asked by the police reaction, Labrisz’s director is “optimistic”: “I don’t think the police use water cannons or tear gas because it will be a peaceful protest.” It is convinced, however, that the ultras will try to “provoke them.” She trusts the experience of the organizers to resist and maintain the march without altercations. Also that the protest is massive: more than 50,000 people, according to their calculations.
Prohibition of pride
In 2020, the entity led by Dorottya Rédai published a fairy tales book reimaginated with characters and topics on people LGTBIQ+, which was attacked by the Orbán government to the point of taking advantage of the occasion to promulgate a law that prohibits the representation of LGBT people in school materials or television programs aimed at young people. It is the controversial law of “childhood protection” with which the suppression of the right to protest is now justified and that is in the hands of the EU courts.
On March 18, the Hungarian Parliament approved a modification of the Law on the Right of Meeting to “prohibit the assemblies that violate” the Law of “Children’s Protection”. That is, the Public Protests or Encounters of the LGTBIQ+collective. With the entry into force of the new law, the Hungarian authorities can use facial recognition technologies to identify protesters and impose fines of up to 500 euros to the participants, who risk criminal crimes and up to a year in prison. Taking advantage of the absolute majority of Fidesz, the Orbán party, the Chamber ratified a reform of the Constitution to shield the prohibition.
In a climate of homophobic repression, pride in Hungary has never been a festive celebration “as if it were a carnival”, but rather a “manifestation for human rights,” says Labrisz. Already in recent years, the protest has been growing due to anti-LGTBIQ+policies, but this Saturday it is expected to be massive, despite threats.
Although the mayor of Budapest, the environmental politician Gergely Karáscany, authorizes the protest in accordance with municipal regulations, the police have prohibited it following government orders to apply state law. On the other hand, the police forces have allowed a demonstration of the extreme right on the same day and in the same area of the traditional Parade of Budapest’s pride.
“Pride is more than a march, it is a celebration of love, diversity, equality and freedom to be oneself. In Hungary, this freedom is being attacked. The right to free meeting is a pillar of democracy, and the Hungarian government tries to turn it into something optional in a dangerous way,” warns Human Rights Watch in a statement.
Support from Catalonia
Dozens of politicians and representatives of human rights entities throughout Europe have traveled to Budapest to support the Hungary LGTBIQ+ collective. For example, Amnesty International has sent some 70 delegates from 17 European sections.
From Catalunya, the Parliament has sent a delegation of deputies: the first vice president, Raquel Sans, and the deputies Sara Jaurrieta (PSC-UNITS), Ennatu Domingo (Junks), Tània Verge (ERC) and Susanna Segovia (Comuns).
Together with the mayors of Paris, Athens or Amsterdamamong others, the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboniattends invited by Karáross. In this way, the socialist will reaffirm “Barcelona’s commitment in the defense of human rights, individual freedoms and democratic values typical of European values,” says the City Council in a statement.
On the part of the Spanish Government, Vice President Yolanda Díaz and the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, who will be accompanied by several leaders of Sumar and the Commons will attend, such as the former mayor Ada Colau and the Eurodiputa Jaume Asens.
The European Parliament will send some 70 eurodiputados, Among those who will also be the socialist Iratxe García and the MEP of Podemos Irene Montero.
EU reaction
Brussels has finally sent to the Equality Commissioner, Hadja Lhabib, who on Friday appeared at a press conference with the mayor of Budapest and the organizers of pride, denouncing that the Fidesz “encourages hatred” towards the LGBTI collective, thus contradicting the “EU values.” “We cannot be liabilities or tolerate it,” said the Belgian, who is still deciding whether or not he will participate in the protest.
The European Commission has tried to take a last minute turn, since it intended to prevent all the commissioners from attending the protest, as advanced ‘Euraactiv’. At the end of May, this media assured that the president of the president of the CE, Ursula von der Leyen, asked the members of their executive not to travel to Budapest for pride not to generate “internal tensions” or “provoke” Orbán.
As the protest date approached, von der Leyen has been raising the tone against the Hungarian leader until facing him on social networks. “I ask the Hungarian authorities to allow the celebration of Pride Budapest. Without fear of any criminal or administrative sanction against the organizers or participants,” said Von der Leyen. In response, Orbán urged Brussels to “refrain from interfering with the matters of application of the Law of the Member States, where he has no role to play.”
However, the EC does not want the curator to participate in the demonstration if it is prohibited, so as not to climb the clash with Orbán at a time when Brussels tries to convince him to approve new sanctions against Russia for the war in Ukraine.
The European Commission has led to Hungary before the EU Court of Justice for the first law on “childhood protection” and does not rule out opening an infringement procedure against Budapest by the new law, since it considers that it violates fundamental rights, especially the meeting and association. A new file that could swell a reproaches list for the authoritarian drift of this country, which entered the EU in 2004 committing to respect the fundamental rights letter of the block. Among them, the right of demonstration of all citizens.
