The local government’s Freedom Day event ended without incidents, with no police intervention, and counter-demonstrators being kept away.
Well over a hundred thousand people marched in the Budapest Pride march organised by the NGO Rainbow Mission and city hall, despite the government’s ban, standing up for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community as well as for freedom of assembly, and against the Hungarian government’s policies.
In the spring, the Hungarian ruling parties attempted to ban the annual regular human rights march of the LGBTQ community through a series of constitutional and legislative amendments on the grounds that it violates the rights of children, which they have put above other fundamental rights by amending the constitution.
The police rejected the application for a permit by the NGOs that usually organise Pride in the past, at which time the Mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony, announced that another event, the Budapest Pride march, would be held as a municipal event, because the municipality is not subject to the law on assembly and therefore, according to their interpretation of the law, does not need to apply for a permit to hold the event.
The police called the event illegal and warned that participants could face fines and organisers up to one year in prison. Despite this, a huge crowd turned out.
“I feel we have to stand up now, if we don’t speak out now we may never have the chance to do so again,” one participant told Euronews.
“We’re not that political, we really just want to be free, and this is how we can be free, by coming out and standing up for ourselves,” a young couple told us.
There was concern before the event that police had allowed counter-demonstrations by several far-right groups on the route of the march, but in the event, they were separated from the Pride march and their presence did not cause any disruption. Although the Our Homeland counter-demonstrators blocked the Freedom Bridge on the original route of the march, they were surrounded by police on both sides while Pride participants crossed the Elisabeth Bridge.
“What is happening here is completely illegal, it is endangering the healthy development of children, and I find it very sad that the police are not stopping this process,” Tamás Gaudi-Nagy, executive director of the National Legal Defence Service, told Euronews. “While the national radical organisations have been restricted in their demonstrations, as they have been for many years, the protesters of Our Homeland have not been allowed to cross the Liberty Bridge.”
The march was joined by more than 70 members of the European Parliament and several mayors from various European capitals.
One of the organisers of the event, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony, who has been threatened with jail by the Hungarian government’s justice minister, said in his speech:
“If you can ban a Pride event in a European Union member state, then no mayor in Europe is safe, and today, by so many of you coming, you have made Budapest the capital of Europe for this day.”
Karácsony said that the participants “showed a big gesture to the powers that be”, while at the same time he also took a swipe at Péter Magyar, the leader of the strongest opposition party, Tisza, who did not participate in the march and only cautiously posted a message of support on social media without mentioning the name of the event.
The mayor said that they would not vote for just anyone in the election against the powers that be. They will support whoever they can rightly expect to make Hungary their common home again.
According to the police, to whom Karácsony nevertheless gave special thanks, they had a lot of trouble with what they thought was an illegal gathering, and blamed the organisers for not co-operating with them. However, by 20:00, a total of only 36 people had been stopped and only two people had been arrested – one for hooliganism and one for possession of drugs – meaning that Budapest Pride ended with literally no major incidents.
