Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman has announced plans to attend the Budapest pride parade on 28 June, despite Hungarian police declaring a ban on the event, reports RTE.
The parade, marking the city’s 30th annual pride festival, was scheduled to take place on 28 June in support of the LGBTQIA2S+ community.
“The police, acting within their authority over public assemblies, prohibit the holding of the assembly at the aforementioned location and time,” read a statement on the police’s official website, reports RTE.
Authorities added that this decision may be challenged within three days by filing an appeal with Hungary’s supreme court.
Nonetheless, Budapest’s liberal mayor Gergely Karacsony insisted the event would proceed, rejecting the police ban, reports RTE.
“Given that the municipality did not make its announcement within the framework of the law on gatherings, this interdiction has no value,” he stated on Facebook.
He continued: “Budapest city hall will organise the Budapest pride march on June 28 as a city event. Period,” reports RTE.
Commenting this afternoon, Mr O’Gorman described the police action as the “most egregious attack” on Hungary’s LGBTQI+ community in decades.
“This is a very explicit erosion of the rights of the LGBTI+ community in Hungary,” reports RTE.
“It’s an absolute attempt to silence them by their government. It’s a clear breach of human rights,” reports RTE.
“And that’s why it’s important that elected reps from all over Europe rally around Hungarians, rally around people in Hungary who see this for what it is and support them at the Budapest parade this year,” said Mr O’Gorman, reports RTE.
Earlier this year, Hungary’s parliament—dominated by Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s right-wing Fidesz Party—enacted legislation in March allowing police to ban LGBTQI+ demonstrations on the grounds of child protection, reports RTE.
The Orban government, known for its Christian conservative stance, has intensified its rhetoric and actions targeting the LGBTQI+ community.
In April, it enacted constitutional amendments stating Hungary acknowledges only two genders: male and female, reports RTE.
Mr Orban has previously stated that parade organisers “should not even bother” trying to hold pride in Budapest this year.
Mr O’Gorman said that Mr Orban’s government “has been scapegoating the LGBTI+ community now for many years, and what they’ve done now is one further escalation”, reports RTE.
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