BUDAPEST, June 19. /TASS/. The Budapest police have banned a planned LGBT parade scheduled for June 28 in the heart of the Hungarian capital, citing recent amendments to the law on public assembly.
Authorities rejected the organizers' application, invoking the updated legal framework.
Organizers of the event had planned the march along a section of the Grand Boulevard Ring and the Danube embankment from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., with an expected turnout of tens of thousands of people.
"The police, acting within their powers to regulate assemblies, forbid the march from taking place at the specified place and time," said Tamas Terdik, head of the Budapest Police Department. This position aligns with the stance of the Hungarian government led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
However, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony, elected as an opposition candidate, stated that the parade would proceed regardless, describing it as a "municipal event" that does not require special approval from national authorities.
The police based their ban on recent constitutional and legislative amendments passed by the Hungarian parliament and signed into law by President Tamas Sulyok. The constitutional change emphasizes that the rights of children take precedence "over everything else except the right to life," while the revised law on assemblies bans public events that "demonstrate deviations from gender identity received at birth, sex reassignment, or homosexuality." Violations may result in significant fines.
Although the amendments do not explicitly prohibit pride events, the government maintains that such gatherings should not be held in crowded central areas, but rather in more remote and regulated locations. These measures have sparked criticism from LGBT (the movement is designated as extremist and banned in Russia), human rights organizations, and EU institutions in Brussels. Critics view the new regulations as a violation of the right to assembly and as part of a broader crackdown on civil rights and freedoms in Hungary.