On Saturday afternoon, the 5th Pécs Pride took place, Hungary’s only regular LGBTQ+ march outside Budapest, despite being banned under the country’s new assembly law. The ban was upheld by the Supreme Court, but the organisers confirmed that the event would go ahead.
Participants gathered at Kossuth Square in Pécs, quickly swelling into a crowd of several thousand. Even before the march began, chants of “Love is a human right” and “Free country, free love” rang out, alongside the summer hit “Dirty Fidesz”, according to 444.hu’s report. Leading the march was lawyer and human rights activist Péter Heindl, who had framed the march as a protest against the overpopulation of deer, while a Two-Tailed Dog Party-themed car played music and two performers in zebra costumes danced behind him.
The march featured a range of political and civil society participants, including members of Momentum, the Democratic Coalition (DK), Párbeszéd, and Amnesty International, as well as politicians Barabás Richárd, Bedő Dávid, and Sebián-Petrovszki László. Along Király Street, the atmosphere was peaceful, with passers-by and shopkeepers waving support as the crowd continued on their two-hour route under the sun.
Right-wing groups, including the Hatvannégy Vármegye Youth Movement (HVIM) and CitizenGo, attempted to block the march. Officers quickly intervened to remove those holding banners in the street, allowing the marchers to continue. One aggressive individual struck participants, including a woman in a zebra costume, with an empty bottle and damaged a Pride flag before being apprehended and handcuffed by police, according to HVG.
At the Tettye viewpoint, where the march concluded, speeches focused on human rights and solidarity. Pécs Mayor Attila Péterffy invoked the words of Martin Luther King, stressing that the ban was unjust and that civil society and journalists must be defended. Géza Buzás-Hábe, director of the Diverse Youth Network, emphasised that this Pride was not a celebration but a stand for minorities, the oppressed, and the marginalised. “We will not bow to fear,” he said. Roma LGBTQ+ activist Joci Márton urged Western governments to support the Hungarian LGBTQ+ community and those targeted by police for advocating for others, such as Palestinians.
Despite the authorities’ refusal to authorise the event, the thousands-strong turnout demonstrated the resilience of the rural Hungarian LGBTQ+ community and its commitment to defending rights and showing solidarity with marginalised groups. The march ended at Tettye with speeches and applause.
Featured image: illustration, Facebook/Budapest Pride
Their kind needs to be eliminated. Its a mental disease.
Depraved freaks!
What a disgusting nazi opinion.
This is exactly why Price marches are needed as some people think it’s a mental disease. It is not.
Go and educate yourself and grow up.
Hopefully the police were contacted about your calls for genocide.
Homosexuality is not a “RIGHT”
How many of the “thousands” are actually from Pecs? A fraction. The rest are professional activists, financed from abroad.
At any rate, “love is a human right”? Well, not really. Not under any law. But no-one is prohibiting anyone from loving anyone else. Love whoever you want. Sleep with whomever you want, so long as it’s consensual. Just don’t try to indoctrinate the rest, especially kids, as something perfectly normal and even desirable.
Fact is, gays and the rest of the crazy alphabets are not in any way oppressed in Hungary as far as their daily life and activities. So why protest unless your aim is not to be able to lead a normal life, which you are, but something ulterior?
100%!
LGBTQ people are oppressed in Hungary, that is a fact. E.g., just read Andrews opinion above. More examples are easy to find with googling “LGBTQ oppressed Hungary”.
Do not try to indoctrinate that LGBTQ people need to hide their love. And stop your childish conspiracy theories where everything you don’t like is “financed from abroad”.
“Professional activists, financed from abroad”
Huh. Can you describe yourself in a verifiable way?
“Vibrant” commentary contributions on the subject of this article.
The “longevity” of this subject over the time of (15) fifteen years of the Victor Mihaly. Orban led Fidesz Government its sensitivity never without effect(s) on children, it is LOST this FACT.
In his Pontificate, his Holiness Pope Francis visited Hungary.
Hungary, that it is statistically recorded is a population that is represented by 46% of its “ageing” declining in number population being baptized into the Holy Roman Catholic Church.
It is statistically recorded that of the 46% the percentage that actively practice their FAITH like attending the Celebration of the Eucharist – coming to-gether as a community this percentage is just 8%.
Hungary, under the Cardinalship of Peter Erdo, a “committed” acknowledged friend, of Victor Mihaly. Orban the “ill fated” Prime Minister of Hungary, the number of “sitting on the pews” in the gargantuan number of near empty Roman Catholic Churches throughout Hungary, has in a humongous percentage DECLINED in number of those – call them baptized in the practice of their Faith – being Holy Roman Catholics.
It nears time, I HOPE the letter to His Holiness Pope Leo X1V is in draft, seeking retirement, as the leader of the Hungarian Roman Catholic Church, at age 75, submitted by Cardinal Peter Erdo, for the FUTURE of the Holy Roman Catholic Church in Hungary, at a time, that will MARRY with, the DOWNFALL in the Spring of 2026 of Victor Mihaly. Orban.
“New Life” – of a VISIONARY priestly ministry, in the spreading, the leadership, the teaching, the message and IMAGE of the Word of God, for the FUTURE of the Holy Roman Catholic Church of Hungary, that in the conscience examination of Peter Erdo, he places the Holy Roman Catholic Church of Hungary FIRSTLY, and his future earthly life, avoided not dominated by selfishness – Second.
Erdo, has proven in his extended time, his Cardinalship of the Hungarian Roman Catholic Church – he is not of priesthood of “these” times, being an individual not in being a Man of ALL Seasons”.
Pope Francis words – the Wisdom of his TEACHING / Message said ;
“We must all Respect each other.
Everyone.”