Referring to ill-proportioned harm done to traffic, police chief of Budapest imposed a ban on the Gay Pride march, planned to be held in the afternoon of 18 July. The march would have covered a route starting from Heroes Square, proceeding along the Andrássy Avenue and Bajcsy-Zsilinszky road, and finally arriving at Kossuth Square.

SZEMA – Liberal Party insists that the right of assembly is a basic human right, and therefore is secured by the Hungarian Constitution currently in operation. According to the principles of the constitution, homosexuals also have the right to hold a march and this right shall not be queried by any ridiculous reason. Referring to the ill-proportioned harm done to traffic is such a rubber paragraph that could result in the prohibition of any kind of demonstration, parade or event. Therefore we hold this paragraph incompatible with the basic democratic human rights.

SZEMA – Liberal Party calls the attention to the 21 October 2010 decision of the European Court of Human Rights that states that on the basis of article 11 of the European Convention, non-violent demonstrations that might be disturbing or revolting to outsiders opposing the principles represented by the participants of the event are also under protection. This article applies to the Gay Pride march, as well, in connection to which the Court has stated: banning gay parades violates basic human rights and is completely against European values.

Referring to the harm done to traffic is a pathetic attempt to impermissibly restrict the freedom of everyday life. We remember well the present government’s earlier declarations mentioning the ‘single-hoards’. The governing party would include in the constitution its own anachronistic family picture based on ideologies, and would negatively discriminate homosexuals on the ground of their sexual orientation. Meanwhile it struggles to ban them from the fields of the social publicity. This hardly veiled idea and attempt lies behind the prohibition, not the offence done to the traffic.

The SZEMA – Liberal Party most strongly condemns the ban imposed on the Gay Pride march, rejects the fake and shrewd reasons given and demands the decision to be overruled. The SZEMA – Liberal Party shows solidarity with homosexuals, and demands equal civil rights to them on every field of life.

Budapest, 14-02-2011
Board of SZEMA – Liberal Party