A Hungarian man who removed dozens of Pride flags from Budapest’s Elisabeth Bridge is facing a potential fine of nearly 2.6 million forints (€7,300) and up to three years in prison if convicted of causing significant criminal damage, according to documents published this week by Előd Novák, vice-president of the nationalist Our Homeland (Mi Hazánk) Movement.
The case has become the latest chapter in an increasingly bitter dispute over the display of LGBT flags in the Hungarian capital ahead of the Budapest Pride march scheduled for Saturday, June 27.
The controversy began after Budapest’s liberal mayor, Gergely Karácsony, ordered so-called Progress Pride flags to be displayed along Elisabeth Bridge, which crosses the Danube.
Unlike the older LGBT rainbow flag, the Progress Pride design incorporates additional symbols representing supposed transgender and intersex groups, as well as racial minorities—a more radical expression of LGBT and gender ideology.
Videos circulating online showed a man removing the flags from the bridge and throwing them into the Danube in broad daylight. Following a complaint from the mayor’s office, police identified and questioned a 58-year-old suspect, who admitted carrying out the act. He reportedly told police:
I am proud of what I did, and I would do exactly the same again tomorrow. I did not request a lawyer during my police interview either. I had no need for one, because I simply did what my personal convictions dictated.
Novák pledged to cover the cost of any fines imposed against the man and announced that the individual would receive a “Public Courage Award” at an anti-LGBT “Family Pride March” organised by his movement next month.
In response to the removal of the Pride flags, members of Mi Hazánk’s youth organisation installed Hungarian national flags along both sides of the bridge. Novák said they intended to demonstrate that “Budapest belongs to everyone” and should not be associated with any particular political or ideological movement.
The dispute escalated further on Wednesday, June 24th, when footage emerged appearing to show an individual throwing a Hungarian flag from the bridge into the Danube. Police confirmed that a misdemeanour investigation had been launched. Mi Hazánk announced that it would file complaints over vandalism and the desecration of a national symbol.
According to MP Dóra Dúró of Mi Hazánk:
The desecration of our national flag is unacceptable: it is a red line that we cannot allow to pass without protest. The red-white-and-green flags were placed on the bridge by the youth wing of Mi Hazánk in place of symbols promoting deviant ideology. We must show strength and courage so that the Hungarian nation can have a healthy future.
While the previous conservative Hungarian government under Viktor Orbán restricted public promotion of LGBT causes, the new pro-Brussels government under Prime Minister Péter Magyar has regularly voiced support for Budapest Pride following its election victory in April.
In his victory speech in April, Magyar said Hungary should be a place “where no one is stigmatised for loving someone differently than the majority”—a clear signal that his government will seek to appease the EU and roll back conservative legislation on restricting LGBT propaganda.
