Hungary celebrated Gay Pride march by rejecting controversial anti-LGTBI law promoted by Víktor Orbán

More than 10,000 Hungarians took part in the Gay Pride parade in central Budapest on Saturday, in a gesture of solidarity with the LGBT + community in the face of the policies adopted against it by the government of the ultra-nationalist Viktor Orbán, and especially a recently sanctioned homophobic law.

The pride of this year differs from that celebrated in previous years; The organization made changes to the route the march will take, which was also heralded as a protest against the government for discriminating against the group, according to newspaper information Nepszava.

As stated on the official event website, this is a protest against the law of “homophobic propaganda in the style (Vladimir Putin), against hate images, stigmatization of transgender people and hate speech”.

On this day “all of Europe is watching what is happening in Hungary”, Terry Reintke, co-chair of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on LGBT + Rights, told protesters gathered in the central Madách square, from where the march to Tabán Park began.

“We are here against hatred and the drift of the rule of law and the authoritarian wave”, said the MEP.

“The last time was very stressful, hopeless and terrifying for the LGBT + community”, whose members are discriminated against, the organizers recalled in the call for the march. The Hungarian government “is banning the LGBT + community with laws in its own homeland,” they added.

The Budapest Parliament approved in June a controversial law, criticized for its homophobia, which prohibits, among other things, talking about homosexuality to minors in schools and in the media.

The new legislation was designed to toughen the penalties for pedophilia, but shortly before his vote, provisions relating to homosexuality were added.

With its now traditional coloring, the parade, which was attended by opposition politicians, actors, musicians, athletes and other well-known figures of Magyar society, passed through the center of Budapest and passed through a Danube side to the other over the Szabadság Bridge.

Several far-right organizations, such as the Nuestra Patria movement and the Alfa Federation called for a demonstration against the march from the LGBT + community, but only a few dozen ultras participated, which the police surrounded to avoid possible clashes and incidents.

Pulse between Orban and the European Union

The event is celebrated days after Orban announced plans to call a referendum on the new legislation, which has been the subject of much criticism nationally and internationally for discrimination and stigmatization of the group.

The government is thus trying to to dispel pressure from the European Union to repeal legislation which, according to Budapest, is only intended to protect children against crimes such as pedophilia.

Orban’s party, Fidesz, continues to defend that the social issues of each country must be national issues and insists on the fact that the objective of the text is to protect children and not discriminate against homosexuals.

In addition, Orban assured that The country is unwilling to accept money from the European post-coronavirus recovery fund if that means giving in to Brussels and repealing the aforementioned law.

The President thus indicated that These grants will be rejected if the fund is linked in any way to these regulations., which has been harshly criticized by Brussels for discriminating against the group.

For the Hungarian government, the European Commission delayed its approval of the recovery plan because of “its political rejection of national legislation adopted to protect children”. Thus, in a decree published in the Official Journal, Budapest said it would only accept an agreement “if the European Commission does not impose conditions that do not apply to other member states”.

With information from EFE and EuropaPress

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