Earlier this year, Hungarian lawmakers passed new legislation which outlaws Pride events in the country and allows authorities to use facial recognition technology to identify those attending any events that go ahead despite the ban. <\/p>\n
But officials from at least six groups of the European Parliament are planning on attending Budapest\u2019s annual Pride march anyway, according to a spokesperson for Kim van Sparrentak, the co-president of the European Union\u2019s Intergroup. <\/p>\n
The Intergroup describes itself as an \u201cinformal forum for Members of the European Parliament (MEPS) who wish to advance and protect the fundamental rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people.\u201d <\/p>\n
Budapest Pride has remained determined in the face of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n and his government, which has previously said it is outlawing the parade and other LGBTQ gatherings in the country due to \u201cchild protection\u201d issues. <\/p>\n
Organizers have vowed to hold the event anyway, and have called on \u201cinternational allies, activists, and friends\u201d to join the Pride parade though Hungary\u2019s capital on June 28. <\/p>\n
\u201cPride is a protest, and if Orb\u00e1n can ban Budapest Pride without consequences, every pride is one election away from being banned,\u201d she continued. <\/p>\n
Angel said that he will be \u201cdefending the right to assemble as a fundamental European right,\u201d adding that he hopes to \u201cshow Hungarians who believe in democracy and in Europe that they are not alone.\u201d <\/p>\n
On Tuesday, a group of 20 countries in the European Union signed a letter urging Hungary to revise its \u201canti-LGBTIQ+ legislation,\u201d calling on the European Commission to \u201cexpeditiously make full use of the rule of law toolbox at its disposal\u201d if this doesn\u2019t happen. <\/p>\n
Angel suggested that some of these mechanisms could include stopping EU funding to Hungary and enacting an infringement procedure against the country for failing to implement EU law. <\/p>\n
In Tuesday\u2019s letter, the foreign ministries of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden said that they are \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d by Hungary\u2019s recent law changes. <\/p>\n
The use of facial recognition software to identify people attending banned events was also condemned, with the countries saying that they \u201care concerned by the implications of these measures on freedom of expression, the right to peaceful assembly, and the right to privacy.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cRespecting and protecting the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all people, including LGBTIQ+ persons, is inherent in being part of the European family. This is our responsibility and shared commitment of the member states and the European institutions,\u201d the letter read. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Hungarian lawmakers passed new legislation which outlaws Pride events in the country and allows authorities to use facial recognition technology to identify those attending any events that go ahead despite the ban. But officials from at least six groups of the European Parliament are planning on attending Budapest\u2019s annual Pride march anyway, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":13948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}