to ban the annual celebration<\/a>. Orban\u2019s government has consistently argued that the legislation defends traditional family values and protects children.<\/p>\nWhile the prime minister has been emboldened by the anti-diversity offensive of President Donald Trump in the United States, his own initiatives have drawn protests at home and condemnation from the EU and rights groups.<\/p>\n
The nationalist leader on Friday said that while police would not \u201cbreak up\u201d the 30th edition of the Pride march, those who took part should be aware of \u201clegal consequences\u201d.<\/p>\n
Despite the risk of a fine, more than 35,000 people are expected to gather at 2pm (12:00 GMT) near Budapest\u2019s city hall, an hour before the march begins.<\/p>\n
Ministers from several EU countries and dozens of European politicians are expected to attend in defiance of the ban, reminiscent of events in Moscow in 2006 and Istanbul in 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not just standing up for ourselves \u2026 If this law isn\u2019t overturned, Eastern Europe could face a wave of similar measures,\u201d Pride organiser Viktoria Radvanyi said.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen called on the Hungarian authorities to reverse the ban.<\/p>\n
Thirty-three countries have also spoken up in support of the march.<\/p>\n
While parade organisers risk up to a year in prison, attendees can face fines up to 500 euros ($580). The latest legal changes empower the authorities to use facial recognition technology to identify those who take part.<\/p>\n
Freshly installed cameras have appeared on lamp posts along the planned route of the march.<\/p>\n
However, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony has insisted that no attendee can face any reprisals as the march \u2013 co-organised by the city hall this time \u2013 is a municipal event and does not require police approval.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe police have only one task tomorrow, and it is a serious one: to ensure the safety of Hungarian and European citizens attending the event,\u201d Karacsony said during a briefing with visiting EU equalities commissioner Hadja Lahbib.<\/p>\n
Far-right groups have announced multiple counterprotests along the planned route of the procession.<\/p>\n
Justice Minister Bence Tuzson this week sent a letter to EU embassies cautioning diplomats and staff against participating because of the police ban.<\/p>\n
Several EU countries have informed their citizens of the potential of fines through travel advisories.<\/p>\n
Since Orban\u2019s return to power in 2010, the country of 9.6 million people has been steadily rolling back LGBTQ rights.<\/p>\n
Legal changes have, in effect, barred same-sex couples from adopting children, prevented transgender people from changing their name or gender in official documents, and a 2021 law forbade the \u201cdisplay and promotion\u201d of homosexuality to under-18s.<\/p>\n
In March, politicians passed a bill targeting the annual Pride march, amending the 2021 law to prohibit any gathering violating its provisions.<\/p>\n
A month later, parliament also adopted a constitutional change to strengthen the legal foundations for the ban.<\/p>\n
\u201cOrban is employing a tried-and-tested recipe ahead of next year\u2019s election by generating a conflict,\u201d political analyst Daniel Mikecz told the news agency AFP. Orban was \u201cpolarising society\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n
Voter opinion polls suggest Orban\u2019s Fidesz party has been losing ground to the opposition.<\/p>\n
The first Pride march was held in 1970 in New York to mark the anniversary of the city\u2019s Stonewall riots in June 1969, which created the gay rights movement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands to march in Hungary\u2019s capital despite government ban, highlighting EU-wide resistance against anti-LGBTQ laws. A record number…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,1699,4582,2190,5763,12,285,6512,2579,53,74429],"class_list":{"0":"post-221143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-european-union","12":"tag-human-rights","13":"tag-hungary","14":"tag-lgbtq","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-privacy","18":"tag-protests","19":"tag-technology","20":"tag-the-far-right"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}