Hungarian Police Ban Budapest Pride March, Citing Protection of Children
Reuters file photo
People attend the Budapest Pride march in Budapest, Hungary, July 23, 2022.
BUDAPEST, June 19 (Reuters) – Hungarian police said on Thursday that they were banning the Budapest Pride march of the LGBTQ+ community planned for June 28, despite the city's mayor saying it was a municipal event that requires no permits from authorities.
Hungary's parliament, in which Prime Minister Viktor Orban's right-wing Fidesz Party has a big majority, passed legislation in March that created a legal basis for police to ban LGBTQ marches, citing the protection of children. It also lets police use facial recognition cameras to identify people who attend.
Budapest's liberal mayor Gergely Karacsony tried to circumvent the law when he announced on Monday that since the Budapest Pride march will be a municipal event 'no permits from authorities are needed'.
Budapest metropolitan police, however, said the law applied to the event organised by the mayor and banned it.
The police ban has 'no relevance' as authorities were not officially notified of the plans for the event, Karacsony said on Facebook.
'The Metropolitan Municipality will host the Budapest Pride Freedom Celebration on June 28, the day of Hungarian freedom, as a municipal event. Period,' the mayor wrote. Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the protest.
Orban faces a challenging election in 2026 where a new surging opposition party poses a threat to his rule.
His government has a Christian conservative agenda and its intensifying campaign against the LGBTQ community has aimed to please Fidesz's core voters, mostly in the countryside.
Orban said in February that organisers should not even bother organising Pride in Budapest this year.
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