A Budapest Pride march is expected to go ahead on Saturday, defying Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s legal threats against LGBTQ rights activists.
March organisers hope for a record attendance, despite mounting pressure from nationalist conservative politicians and police to stop any display of pro-LGBTQ material.
The police issued a ban in line with a new “child protection” law restricting gatherings considered to be promoting homosexuality. One woman said she was planning to attend because she wants a country of “diversity” for her children.
Orban downplayed the possibility of violent clashes between police and participants, but warned of potential legal repercussions for attendees.
“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.
Luca, 34, who is planning to attend with her mother Enikö, said they want a country of “diversity” which she said they don’t currently have.
“We have a law that bans people who are different from others to gather. This is why we are here. Because it’s hurting our rights. That’s why we came.”
She told the BBC she is worried about her four-year-old daughter’s future living “in a country where she can’t love anyone she wants to”.
Barnabás said he was attending to “express my solidarity with the LGBTQ community… because I know what it feels like not being seen and to be treated like an outcast, which obviously everyone here is not”.
Not part of the community himself, the 22-year-old said he comes from the countryside, where people “are more likely to be xenophobic and homophobic”.
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, a member of Hungary’s opposition, has insisted no-one attending the march can face any reprisals as it has been co-organised by city hall, and as such is a municipal event that does not require police approval.
Ahead of the Pride, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen asked the Orban government not to block the march.
Orban was unfazed, asking her “to refrain from interfering in the law enforcement affairs” of EU member countries.