Hungary Pride to go ahead, defying Orban threat of ‘legal consequences’

A Budapest Pride march is anticipated to proceed on Saturday, challenging Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s legal warnings aimed at LGBTQ rights advocates.

The organizers of the march are aiming for record turnout this year, even amid increasing pressure from nationalist conservative politicians and law enforcement to prevent any exhibition of pro-LGBTQ content.

Authorities have enforced a prohibition, aligning with a recently introduced “child protection” legislation that limits assemblies seen as advancing homosexuality. The day before the Pride event, Orban minimized the chances of violent confrontations between law enforcement and attendees – yet cautioned that participants might encounter potential legal consequences.

“Of course, the police could break up such events, because they have the authority to do so, but Hungary is a civilised country, a civic society. We don’t hurt each other,” he told state radio on Friday.

“There will be legal consequences, but it cannot reach the level of physical abuse.”

Attendees risk a fine of up to €500 (£427; $586), with police empowered to use facial recognition technology to identify them.Organisers could face a one-year prison sentence.

EU equalities commissioner Hadja Lahbib, a former Belgian foreign minister, is in Budapest and expected to join the march, along with dozens of MEPs.On Friday, she posted a picture showing her standing with the liberal Budapest mayor Gergely Karacsony in front of a rainbow flag symbolising gay rights.

The Pride march “will be a powerful symbol of the strength of the civil society,” she wrote on X.

Karacsony, an opposition figure in Hungary, has emphasized that participants in the march will not face any reprisals since it has been co-organized by the city hall, qualifying it as a municipal event not needing police permission.

Prior to the Pride event, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged the Orban government to allow the march to proceed. Orban remained unbothered, requesting her “to avoid meddling in the law enforcement matters” of EU member states.