Sawt Falasteen - Hungary's hard-pressed LGBTQ people say Orban exit is only half battle

Orban -- Vladimir Putin's closest ally in Europe -- has led a years-long crackdown on LGBTQ rights, culminating in an unprecedented ban on Pride marches in an EU member state.

His challenger, conservative Peter Magyar, whose party is leading the polls, regularly says he supports equality, but avoids taking a clear stance on LGBTQ rights.

Orban has been in power since 2010 and just "returning to legal conditions before Orban's tenure would be an improvement," rights activist Geza Buzas-Habel told AFP at an LGBTQ-friendly cafe in the southern university city of Pecs.

Even if Orban goes after the April 12 vote, "we still have a lot to do", he insisted. "The main opposition is unwilling to communicate on LGBTQ rights, so we must pressure them," the 32-year-old Roma rights activists added.

- 'Courting conservative voters' -

Nor are they an issue in the elections, despite Orban, 62, facing one of the strongest challenges to his rule on the streets when the government enacted a ban on Pride marches last year.

Instead of being scared away, record crowds defied the law to take part in parades in Budapest and Pecs.

"Hundreds of thousands went, risking fines... It felt like a breath of fresh air after all these measures suffocating us," said Hella Zsirka, acting head of LGBTQ rights group Hatter Society.

The 26-year-old trans activist legally changed her name and gender before a law barring such changes came into force in 2020.

A barrage of anti-LGBTQ measures followed, including a 2021 law against "promoting" homosexuality or gender change to minors on "child protection" grounds.

The European Union's top court is challenging the legality of the ban.

Orban's crackdown has fuelled hostility towards the LGBTQ community, Zsirka said.

In one case, a knife-wielding man threatened a lesbian couple for holding hands on a tram, Zsirka recalled.

"When we took the case to court, the attacker stated that he did it because according to Orban, it's right (to do this)," she said.

Many LGBTQ activists, including Zsirka, are "disappointed" that their cause is ignored by the main opposition.

But political analysts say strategically it makes sense.

Opposition leader Magyar is "courting more conservative voters in smaller towns", convinced that the committed anti‑government urban base will support his TISZA party anyway, Andrea Virag, director of strategy at liberal Republikon think tank said.

Orban's Fidesz party is not too keen to revisit the issue either, the expert added, since they "miscalculated" the public mood on Pride and had to downplay the high turnout.

- 'Wait for the vote' -

But an Orban victory could embolden the government to take an even harsher stance after the elections, activists fear.

Party hardliners like parliament speaker Laszlo Kover have indicated that they would like the Pride ban enforced this year if Fidesz stays in power.

"This issue must be dealt with after the election," Fidesz spokesman Balazs Nemeth told AFP.

For now, LGBTQ activists face uncertain futures, with Orban accused of repressing civil society, seeking to discredit and defund critical NGOs since returning to power in 2010.

Buzas-Habel, who organised Pecs Pride, is now facing criminal charges because of the ban.

He lost his job as a teacher at a Roma high school in 2024 over what he describes as a political order "from high up".

Since then, he has applied "for multiple posts, but even free-thinking institutions asked me to wait for the April vote," he said.

U.Shaheen--SF-PST