Budapest’s escalating flag war took another turn this week after dozens of Hungarian national flags appeared on Elisabeth Bridge, replacing the Pride banners that had flown there only days earlier.
The secret of the new flags was quickly revealed by Előd Novák, vice-president of the nationalist Our Homeland Movement (Mi Hazánk), who said he and members of the party’s youth wing had placed a Hungarian flag in every pole holder on the bridge. They did this before the city’s mayor could replace the Pride flags that had previously flown there until they were thrown into the Danube by a protester.
“Budapest belongs to everyone,” Novák wrote on Facebook. “That’s why it’s unacceptable for it to be appropriated by any party or political movement, such as the LGBTQETC lobby with its flags.”
“Instead of a foreign ideology imported from abroad, we proclaim patriotism and that we Hungarians have plenty to be proud of,” the party added in a statement.
Earlier this month, Budapest city authorities decorated Elisabeth Bridge with large rainbow flags ahead of this weekend’s Pride march. The move was widely seen as a symbolic break with the policies of former prime minister Viktor Orbán’s government, which had restricted public promotion of LGBT causes.
However, resistance to the display emerged almost immediately. It was just a few days before an ordinary citizen decided to take matters into his own hands by removing the flags and throwing them into the Danube in broad daylight. While videos of the unknown “hero” quickly went viral, the city’s left-wing mayor filed a police report, and the 58-year-old man was quickly arrested in his home and charged with vandalism.
The incident also became a topic of discussion in Parliament, where Novák thanked the person for removing the “rainbow rags” and offered to pay his fines.
But since the mayor already promised the LGBT flags would return for Saturday’s Pride march, Our Homeland decided to take action first. Now, if the mayor wants to put his rainbow flags back, he must first remove the national tricolors.
Our Homeland is also organizing a ‘counter-Pride’ for Saturday, called the “Family Pride March,” for people who support the traditional family model.
