By Krisztina Fenyo and Gergely Szakacs
BUDAPEST (Reuters) – A number of thousand Hungarians mocked right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s strikes to ban the annual Pleasure march by LGBTQ+ teams, wearing gray and carrying banners sarcastically denouncing colors and variety at a rally in central Budapest.
The rally, known as by the Two-tailed Canine Occasion, a satirical motion, follows a number of different protests since Parliament, dominated by Orban’s nationalist Fidesz get together, handed a regulation final month to ban Pleasure on the grounds that it could possibly be dangerous to youngsters. The Pleasure march was meant to happen in late June.
Whereas Fidesz says it’s defending household values, critics see the transfer to ban Pleasure as a part of a wider crackdown on democratic freedoms forward of a normal election subsequent yr. Orban will face a robust opposition challenger, seen by some current opinion polls as pulling forward.
Protesters at Saturday’s rally carried banners saying “being uniform is cool” and “take heed to your coronary heart, demise to colors”.
“I might strip them (LGBT folks) of their proper to meeting, as a result of they’re all criminals,” mentioned Samuel Tar, who joined the demonstration together with his mates, all wearing gray.
“They want to categorical themselves, which could be very dangerous. Solely I ought to be allowed to precise myself, nobody else.”
The Two-tailed Canine Occasion mentioned with heavy irony that it known as the rally to assist Orban’s efforts to stamp out variety, saying this trumps all different points in Hungary, together with excessive inflation, an absence of inexpensive housing and the poor state of public providers.
“Each downside on this planet stems from variety and individualism,” it mentioned.
The get together began out as a fringe motion practically 20 years in the past and shot to prominence when its chief, Gergely Kovacs gained a mayoral contest in a Budapest district final yr, defeating Orban’s Fidesz in a former ruling get together stronghold.
The get together has no lawmakers in parliament and though it calls itself the one good choice in a deeply polarised society, it’s unclear if it will possibly construct sufficient assist to get into parliament subsequent yr.
(Reporting by Krisztina Fenyo; Writing by Gergely Szakacs; Modifying by Frances Kerry)
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