Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman has announced that he plans to attend the Budapest pride parade on 28 June, following a move by Hungarian police to ban the event, reports RTE.
The parade, which would mark the 30th annual pride festival in the city, is held in solidarity with the LGBTQI+ community and had originally been scheduled for 28 June.
“The police, acting within their authority over public assemblies, prohibit the holding of the assembly at the aforementioned location and time,” read a statement posted on the police website, reports RTE.
Authorities also noted that the ruling may be challenged in the country’s supreme court within a three-day window.
Despite the police decision, Budapest’s liberal mayor Gergely Karacsony has pledged to proceed with the parade, 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 posted on Facebook, reports RTE.
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He went on to add: “Budapest city hall will organise the Budapest pride march on June 28 as a city event. Period.”
In remarks made this afternoon, Mr O’Gorman described the police action as the “most egregious attack” on LGBTQI+ rights seen in years.
“This is a very explicit erosion of the rights of the LGBTI+ community in Hungary. 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.
Back in March, Hungary’s parliament—dominated by Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s right-wing Fidesz Party—approved laws allowing police to prohibit LGBTQI+ parades, citing child protection as the basis.
Mr Orban’s administration follows a Christian conservative ideology and has escalated its stance against the LGBTQI+ community in recent years, reports RTE.
In April, the government enacted constitutional amendments that define gender strictly as male or female.
Mr Orban had previously declared that parade organisers “should not even bother” trying to hold pride in Budapest this year.
Mr O’Gorman said the Orban-led 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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