Police 'Welcomes' Austrian supporters of the 16th Budapest Pride

• A bus with supporters of the Budapest Pride 2011 from Austria was detained by the police. 
• Two of the Austrian supporters were detained for ca. 6 hours.

The 16th Budapest Pride was a good 'temperature check' of nationalism and homophobia in the Hungarian society. The Parade itself took place on June 18, 2011 in Budapest, and this time it was an ambitious attempt to hold it without fences, on a longer route and without secure evacuation of teh Pride participants by metro after the end of the Pride.

Luckily, there were no any clashes between the Pride participants and the rigt-wing extremists during the Pride itself due to the police cordon. Unfortunately, the security measures after the Pride were not provided properly. This resulted into the clash between the Austrian supporters of the Pride and the Hungarian right-wing extremists. As ca. 50 supporters from Vienna were on their way from the Pride to the bus that was parked close to the end point of the Pride (close to the Parliament and a police station), they were attacked by 15 Hungarian neo-nazis. The latter were shouting homophobic and fascists slogans, pushing the Austrians and spraying some stinky substance at the Austrian group. As the police approached, the Austrian group was already inside the bus, while the Hungarian right-wing extremists were claiming that they were attacked by the Austrians. So, the police prevented the Austrian group from going, and detained the bus for ca. 2 hours. The police made all the Austrians who were in the bus already go out and give their documents. After the Austrians were presented one by one to the right-wing extremists, the latter identified two people by whome they were 'attacked', so the police detained these two representatives of the Austrian group for ca. 6 hours. They were released around 4-30 in the morning only. The Austrian ambassador, lawyers from TASZ and some supporters from Hungarian LGBT community were there to help to resolve this issue.

According to Gayboy.at, the two Austrians may face a trial because of the disruption of peace and public order. This accusation can become true becasue of the way the Pride route was fought in the court in February 2011. Back then, the authorities wanted to prohibit the Pride route until the Parliament due to traffic disruptions caused by the Pride. The organizers' appeal was successful though, so that the Pride could take its originally planned route.

Moreover, there is an information of APA (Austrian Press Agency) that the communications department of the Budapest Police Headquarters (BRFK) shared that the two detainees were suspected in rioting.
Furthermore, according to Radicalqueer, this attack on LGBT Pride participants by the right-wing extremists was long planned beforehand. This source states that the police treated the Austrian group as suspects not only due to the accusations by the right-wing extremiss, but also due to intervention of Jobbik (right-wing party) representatives. More thoughts about this you can find here:

More articles on this topic (in German):
Pusztaranger
IndyMedia
QueerNews - here you can find further links!