Smoke bombs were set off in Hungarian parliament on Tuesday following a crackdown on the country’s LGBTQ community by the right-wing government. A new law has banned the annual Budapest Pride event and given police powers to fine attendees hundreds of pounds if they are caught through facial recognition software.
The legislation was pushed through by Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s populist party, Fidesz, alongside its minority coalition partner, the Christian Democrats. It signals an amendment to Hungarian law, making it an offence to hold or attend events that conflict with “child protection” laws prohibiting the “promotion or depiction” of homosexuality to those under 18. Politicians from the opposition centrist party Momentum responded to the new law, which was passed in a 136-27 vote, by setting off brightly-coloured smoke bombs, unleashing pink, orange, yellow and green flumes into the legislative building.
As well as outlawing the organisation of Pride events, the amendment will incur fines of around £420 (€500) for any attendees. It also stated that authorities could use facial recognition tools to find and penalise anyone spotted at the illegal gatherings.
A ban of the annual Budapest march, which was due to take place on June 28, is the latest in a series of crackdowns on Hungary’s LGBTQ community by the Prime Minister and provoked a scathing response from Pride organisers, who accused him of “scapegoating” a minority group.
“This is not child protection, this is fascism,” the organisers said. “The government is trying to restrict peaceful protests with a critical voice by targeting a minority. Therefore, as a movement, we will fight for the freedom of all Hungarians to demonstrate!”
Hungary’s controversial “child protection” law also prohibits the mention of LGBTQ issues in school education programmes and forbids the depiction of “gender deviating from sex at birth”.
The European Commission filed a case against the legislation in 2022, arguing that it “discriminates against people on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity”.
But Mr Orban’s government has insisted that it champions traditional Christian family values, with policies that protect children from “gender madness” and “sexual propoganda”.