Hard techno sounds from a clandestine basement of a café in Budapest. Dozens are gathering outside before the start of the forbidden Budapest Pride. Inside the basement people make up their faces and put on wigs and large sunglasses before they mix outside in the crowd.
Before they go outside, they walk past a camera that checks or their faces are still recognizable despite the disguise. The disguises and camera with face recognition technology are an idea of artist David Varhelyi (26) – black wig, face in the colors of the Hungarian flag: red, white, green. “We do this to prevent the police from recognizing us,” says the Hungarian, who lives in London.
Everyone who participates in the Pride runs the risk of a fine of 500 euros. A new law, introduced just before the Pride, allows the use of face recognition technology by the police. “I was afraid of participating in advance,” says Varhelyi. “But thanks to these disguises, we are too smart for the authorities.” And if it doesn’t work and he gets a fine? “Fuck that, I’m not going to pay.”
Putin and Orbán kiss each other on a sign carried during the march.
Photo Rudolf Karancsi/AP
What Varhelyi does not know at that time is that the pride will lead to a record topics. Where possibly 50,000 participants were taken into account in advance, the turnout appears to be many times higher. Official figures are not yet known on Saturday at the start of the evening. Hungarian media speak of hundreds of thousands of people. It is probably the biggest demonstration since the fall of communism in 1989.
It is a clear signal to the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán who made a ban on the Budapest Pride – an annual event that has been held since the 1990s – with the introduction of a new law. This law makes it possible to prohibit events and demonstrations if the authorities believe that there is an exposure of minors to homosexuality.
But the mayor of Budapest, the progressive Gergely Karácsony, decided to organize a pride, but then from the municipality. For example, the Pride is no longer a demonstration, but a municipal event and the police could not forbid it.
Photo Lisa Leutner/Reuters
Photo Lisa Leutner/Reuters
Photo Rudolf Karancsi/AP
Photo Lisa Leutner/Reuters
Over the past five years, the LGBTI community in Hungary has been the target of Orbán’s government. LGBTI people are compared by politicians with pedophiles. The government introduced a series of homophobic laws, the most important of which is a ban on ‘homopropaganda’: minors may not be exposed to material that encourages ‘homosexuality, deviation from gender identity or gender change’.
In addition to the hundreds of thousands of Hungarians who wanted to support the LGBTI community on Saturday, many international dignitaries have also traveled to Budapest. State Secretary Mariëlle Paul (Emancipation, VVD) decided not to walk along at the last minute, because according to her the situation around the Mars is ‘too unclear’. The Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema did walk along on Saturday, as well as MPs and MEPs of Volt, GroenLinks/PvdA, D66 and VVD.
First time
Among the participants are a striking number of people who walk with the Pride for the first time, or go to a demonstration for the first time. The 14-year-old Manfred wanted to express his solidarity with the LGBTI community, he says. “If the government is not listening to us now, what should we do with Molotov cocktails?” He says full of bravado. His mother, Sara (40), laughs, but is also serious. “I fear for the future of Hungary, my future and that of my children,” she says.
A participant criticizes Hungary, the country “where love is illegal, but theft not”
Photo Lisa Leutner/Reuters
That is also the message of Anita (52), who is walking today because she wants political change. “Democracy is going on and we have to stop,” she says in the hot afternoon sun. She hopes that the parliamentary elections will lead to a change next year and that Orbán’s party Fidesz loses power after fifteen years. In the polls, Orbán’s challenger, Peter Magyar with his party Tisza, is by far at the forefront. But it will take ten months until the elections.
A striking appearance is the 84-year-old PAL. With its old appearance and gray shirt, the pensionado falls out of the tone between the colorful participants of the Pride. Although his message is crystal clear: “Fidesz can go up the pot,” he says. Under communism, the situation was bad at Hungary, says Pal. “But the Communists do not lie as much as Fidesz and steel not as much money-we now live in a kleptocracy,” with which he refers to the widely present corruption and propaganda under the Fidesz government.
His son Tibor (50) embraces his father and looks at him proudly. “I asked if he wilded along today and he did not hesitate for a moment,” says Tibor, who, like his father, walks with the Pride for the first time. “I’m so done with Orbán’s bullshit about gays,” says Tibor. ,, A thousand years ago there were gays and in a thousand years they will still be there. The government should stop its energy in solving the real problems in this country and staying away from our Hungarian gays. ”
Mayor Femke Halsema of Amsterdam also walked into the Mars on Saturday.
Photos Attila Volyi/ANP & Rudolf Karancsi/AP
Extreme right -wing groups
Prior to the pride, possible ramps with opponents were taken into account, whereby the police would not act. Earlier pride’s in Budapest generally went quiet, although participants were called here and there and occasionally an egg flew their way. This year it was mainly feared that extreme right -wing groups would show up massively in counter -demonstrations – feeling supported by the new legislation of the government.
But apart from a bridge blockage, little significant is happening. The twenty members present of the extreme right-wing opposition party Mi Hazánk (Ons Fatherland) keeps Koest behind a banner with ‘Stop LGBTI-P’-in which the P stands for ‘Pedophiles’. Member of Parliament Elod Novak of Mi Hazánk focuses his anger mainly on the police and the government: “Our government is getting to the knees for the homosexuals,” he calls through a megaphone.
Attila Vainer (58), with rainbow socks on, sits on that bridge in the sun next to the members of the extreme right -wing Mi Hazánk. “Today I wanted to express my solidarity with the LGBTI community and wait for the mars to pass here,” says Vainer. But as soon as he finds out that the route has changed, he is startled. “Real?” he asks. “Then I quickly go the other way.”
As soon as he gets up, he sees the other bridge over the Danube, which is filled with people and rainbow flags from start to finish. And that stays that way for hours due to the unprecedented high turnout. “This protest is not just about the pride,” says Vainer. “This is about human rights.”
