Green Party leader to attend Pride parade in Budapest despite ban
Green Party leader Roderic O'Gorman has said that he will travel to Hungary to attend the Budapest pride parade on 28 June after Hungarian police said they are banning the parade.
The march, which would be the city's 30th pride parade festival, is organised in support of the LGBTQI+ community, and had been planned for 28 June.
"The police, acting within their authority over public assemblies, prohibit the holding of the assembly at the aforementioned location and time," the police said in a statement published on their website.
They added that the decision could be appealed within three days at the country's supreme court.
However, Budapest's liberal mayor Gergely Karacsony vowed to hold the march, despite the police ban.
"Given that the municipality did not make its announcement within the framework of the law on gatherings, this interdiction has no value," he wrote on his Facebook page.
He added: "Budapest city hall will organise the Budapest pride march on June 28 as a city event. Period."
Speaking this afternoon, Mr O'Gorman said that the police move is the "most egregious attack" on the LGBTQI+ community seen in decades.
"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.
"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.
Hungary's parliament, in which Prime Minister Viktor Orban's right-wing Fidesz Party has a big majority, passed legislation in March that created a legal basis for police to ban LGBTQI+ marches, citing the protection of children.
Mr Orban's government has a Christian conservative agenda and has been fielding an intensifying campaign against the LGBTQI+ community.
It also pushed through constitutional changes in April stipulating that Hungary recognises only two sexes, male and female.
Mr Orban previously said that organisers "should not even bother" organising pride in Budapest this year.
Mr O'Gorman that the Hungarian government of Mr Orban "has been scapegoating the LGBTI+ community now for many years, and what they've done now is one further escalation".
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