Speakers on the stage of the event included Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony, actors, representatives of several NGOs, and the Romanian vice-president of the European Parliament.

Participants of the parade marched from City Hall Park across Elisabeth Bridge to the Buda side. Because Liberty Bridge had been blocked off by the opposition Our Homeland Movement, police did not allow the participants to march along the originally planned route.

The event's participants included families with children. The crowd was accompanied by nine trucks, including vehicles of the Budapest Metropolitan Council, the satirical Hungarian Two-tailed Dog Party, the Socialist Party, Amnesty International and Tilos Radio.

When the marchers arrived at the stage set up by the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, the end of the procession had just set off from City Hall Park.

The event was incident-free.

Karacsony: ‘Freedom only exists when everyone's dignity is respected'



Freedom only exists when everyone's dignity, faith, conviction and orientation are respected, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony said at the University of Technology and Economics, at the end point of the Budapest Pride march, on Saturday.

"Good evening, Pride, good evening, love!" Karacsony greeted participants of the march, saying the clear message of the parade was that "the hateful powers that be have no power over us".

He said there were always governments that tried to ban or eliminate those who think differently, believe differently, feel differently, or love differently. "But history has shown that this kind of rule comes to an end one day," he added.

The mayor said they had organised a "celebration of freedom" on the day of Hungarian freedom commemorating the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary. "And since they already left once, we don't need Putin's followers to take their place," he added.

Karacsony said the true legal and moral basis for the freedom festival was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says that all human beings are born free, and have equal dignity and rights.

 "Freedom, dignity, equality: this is what we insist on, and we are either free together, or none of us are," he said.

The strength and greatness of Budapest, Karacsony said, was in its diversity, adding that Budapest "cannot and does not want to be anything other than the nation’s capital". He said the nation’s capital always stood by those whose freedom the authorities wanted to restrict.

 "When the powers that be attack civil organisations, we stand by them, when they move against the independent press, we stand by them, when they try to make a mockery of a people's struggle for freedom, we don't confuse the aggressor with the victim, and stand by Ukraine," the mayor said.

"Europe is also with us, with Budapest and with you," Karacsony said, thanking the representatives of European cities and parties for attending the event.

"Budapest chooses Europe and the free world," the mayor said at the end of his speech.

Earlier Report: counter-demonstrators held up banners that read "STOP LGBTQ Pedophilia"



The front of the Budapest Pride march arrived at the stage set up on the Danube embankment in front of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics shortly after 5pm on Saturday afternoon, MTI’s correspondent has said.

As the front of the procession arrived in front of the stage, the back end of the march was just leaving City Hall Park.
 

Police secured the march by blocking off intersections along the route.

The front of the march made its way to the university without any incidents along the way, though a group of counter-demonstrators had blocked the procession’s path at the Buda bridgehead of Liberty Bridge.

Some 20 counter-demonstrators held up banners that read "STOP LGBTQ Pedophilia" and "God, homeland, family: Protect life!".

Police got the counter-protesters to move to the side of the road, who continued to hold up their banners and chanted for the march to be broken up.

Earlier Report 2: Organisers of banned assembly not cooperating with police



The organisers of the banned rally are not cooperating with the police, the Budapest Police Headquarters (BRFK) said in a statement on police.hu.

Police said road and pedestrian traffic at the site of the rally was "chaotic". The actual route of the announced march was uncertain, traffic on the Kiskorut (Small Ring Road) was paralysed, they added.

Police are doing everything they can to ensure safe traffic on the affected road section, they said.

DK: 'Viktor Orban should not dare attack Pride participants'

Opposition Democratic Coalition leader Klara Dobrev said on Monday that Prime Minister "Viktor Orban should not dare attack Hungarians participating in the Pride march".

Dobrev said that last Saturday, hundreds of thousands had shown that they had had enough of "Orban's regime", and they wanted freedom, a European Hungary and free love. Hundreds of thousands had marched "peacefully and cheerfully" in the capital, so after this the prime minister "should not even think of attacking, pestering and fining people", she added.

She said she would "use all European forums against him and protect Hungarians by all possible means" if Orban does that.
 

Source: MTI – Hungary’s national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent.

Since the goal of XpatLoop is to keep readers well briefed, right across the spectrum of opinions, MTI items are shared to ensure readers are aware of all narratives within the local media.

XpatLoop believes in empowering readers to form their own views through complete and comprehensive coverage. To facilitate this XpatLoop has a balanced range of news partners, as you can see when you surf around XpatLoop.com

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