(25 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Budapest – 25 March 2025
1. Various of demonstrators holding smoke bombs and banners and chanting (Hungarian) "We want democracy" and "Europe, Europe”
2. Various of demonstrators blocking traffic
3. Wide of police
4. Wide of smoke
5. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Benedek Lakos, demonstrator:
"Democracy is declining. Those who are not gay or part of the gay community can also feel it. Because now the democracy is destroyed at a level that I think no one should tolerate it anymore.”
6. Various of demonstration, people chanting (Hungarian): "Gathering is a principal right”
7. Wide of demonstrators blocking motorist
8. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Benedek Lakos, demonstrator:
"I feel now for a number of reasons that we have reached a level where, if there are no visible consequences for this (law) from the people, then we can just start digging our own graves."
9. Various of crowd chanting (Hungarian) "Dirty Fidesz" and "We want democracy"
10. Wide of smoke
11. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Paula Antalfy, demonstrator:
"I feel like love should be free. And who you love is not a decision at all in any way. And I simply can’t agree that we can’t gather like we are doing now, and we can’t protest on our own streets, in our own city.”
12. Various of protesters chanting (Hungarian) "Gathering is a principal right”
13. Wide of demonstrators holding smoke bombs
14. Mid of a demonstrators with a banner mocking Orbán
STORYLINE:
A large group of protesters blocked a major thoroughfare in the center of Hungary’s capital on Tuesday in opposition to a recent law that effectively bans LGBTQ+ Pride events and restricts Hungarians’ right to assembly.
The demonstration was the second within a week since Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party used its two-thirds parliamentary majority last Tuesday to fast-track the law seen by critics as the government’s latest crackdown on the rights of the country’s LGBTQ+ community.
Chanting "democracy” and "assembly is a fundamental right,” many of the several thousand demonstrators on Tuesday quickly poured onto Budapest’s Kossuth Lajos street, one of the city’s busiest, igniting colorful smoke bombs and blocking traffic.
Benedek Lakos, 27-year-old member of Budapest’s LGBTQ+ community who attended the demonstration, said "democracy is declining."
The new law, which is reminiscent of similar restrictions against sexual minorities in Russia, amends Hungary’s rules on assembly to make it an offense to hold or attend events that violate Hungary’s contentious "child protection” legislation, which prohibits the "depiction or promotion” of homosexuality to minors under 18.
"I feel now for a number of reasons that we have reached a level where, if there are no visible consequences for this (law) from the people, then we can just start digging our own graves," Lakos said.
Authorities may now use facial recognition tools to identify individuals that attend prohibited events, and can issue fines for violators of up to 200,000 Hungarian forints ($546).
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s party also plans to adopt a constitutional amendment in April that will codify the ban on public LGBTQ+ events.
His government argues that its policies are designed to protect children from "sexual propaganda” but critics view them as part of a broader effort to scapegoat sexual minorities and mobilize his conservative base.
Budapest Pride this year is marking its 30th anniversary, and is scheduled to take place on June 28.
AP video by: Bela Szandelszky
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