CNN
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Hungarian police said Thursday in a statement that it is banning the planned march of Budapest Pride for the LGBTQ+ community on June 28th.
Hungarian parliament is the majority of Prime Minister Victor Orban’s right-wing Fides Party, and in March, the parliament created a legal basis for police to ban LGBTQ marches and cited child protection and created a legal basis.
The liberal mayor of Budapest tried to circumvent the law when he announced Monday that the Budapest Pride March would be a local government event “no permission from the authorities is required.”
But Budapest Metropolitan Police said the law was applied to events organized by the mayor and banned them.
The police ban was “unrelated,” Karacsony said on Facebook, as authorities were not officially informed of plans for the event.
“The Metropolitan Municipality will hold the Budapest Pride Freedom Celebration as a municipal event on June 28th, Hungary’s Freedom Day,” the mayor wrote. Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the protest.
Orban is facing a challenging election in 2026, where a new and surge in opposition poses a threat to his rule.
His government has a conservative Christian agenda, and its intensifying campaign against the LGBTQ community aims to please Fides’ core voters, primarily in the countryside.
Orban said in February that organizers shouldn’t even bother organising pride in Budapest this year.
