Hungary’s clampdown on Pride march sparks backlash

NGOs and human rights activists in Hungary have condemned the government’s proposed clampdown on this year’s Pride march in Budapest.

In a speech last week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán hinted that his administration would crack down on the event, saying it would be “a waste of time and money” for its organisers to make their usual preparations.

Then on Thursday, Gergely Gullyás, the Hungarian minister who runs Orbán’s office, spoke more explicitly.

“There will be no Pride in the public form in which we have known it in recent decades,” he said at a press conference. “We believe that the country should not tolerate Pride marching through the city centre.”

Gullyás claimed the move was being made to “protect children”.

Critics hit out at the government, saying the proposal was a clear breach of citizens’ rights.

Viktor Szalóki, the political director of the Hungarian NGO aHang, said banning the public event would violate people’s rights to free assembly and expression.

Meanwhile, the organisers of Budapest Pride, now in its 30th years, have vowed defiance.

“There was Pride, there is Pride, and there will be Pride,” they said.

“Basically, we think that if the law on assembly is tampered with in any way, it would be an admission that Hungary is no longer a democracy,” Zita Hrubi, the spokesperson for Budapest Pride, added.

Sexual minorities have long been targeted by the Orbán government. Critics of the so-called “Child Protection Act”, introduced in 2021, said it equated homosexuality with paedophilia.

Since 2019, the Hungarian constitution has prohibited same-sex couples from adopting children and defines marriage as only between a man and a woman.