Rainbow flags continue to show up in protest against the Hungarian “homophobic law”
The “homophobic law” passed in Hungary has provoked international outrage. And the ongoing EURO 2020 is no exception, as the rainbow flag and the debate over it have been accompanying the league matches throughout. We have compiled recent events.
As we reported earlier, a petition to light up the Allianz Arena of Munich in rainbow colours was declined by UEFA. As The Guardian’s photos show, football stadiums throughout Germany lit up instead.
Then, at the match, a fan ran into the field, waving a rainbow-coloured flag, during the Hungarian anthem, according to euronews.
According to 24.hu, Péter Szijjártó reacted to the event in an interview shared on Facebook:
“That it is possible to run into the field with a rainbow flag in front of the Hungarian team during the Hungarian anthem is, I think, an unacceptable and repulsive provocation.”
On Wednesday, Hungarian football fans attacked two German women for going to the Puskás Arena in a rainbow-coloured hat for the Portuguese-French European Championship match and having painted a rainbow flag on their hands, writes Bild.de, according to Telex. The two women are German medical students studying in Budapest, living in Hungary for years. They told the paper that they have never experienced such violence before.
According to HVG, Sándor Csányi, President of the Hungarian Football Association, asked the fans to refrain from whistling out the anthems, along with all exclusionary expressions. In order for Hungary to continue to host prestigious sporting events in the future, a sportsmanlike atmosphere is also essential.
“As a host, we need to gain widespread international recognition in this area as well,”
the president said.
UEFA has a responsibility to protect the players from harassment, Georginio Wijnaldum, captain of the Dutch national team, told Sky Sports on Friday. “UEFA must protect the players. It shouldn’t be the responsibility of the players [to decide whether they should walk off]”, said Wijnaldum, adding that he is not ruling out walking off the field if something like that happens on Sunday.
It was previously announced on the team’s official twitter page that the captain of the Dutch national team will play in the armband with the inscription “One Love” on Sunday evening in Budapest.
Regarding sponsors’ ads, UEFA is proving more permissive, approving a number of supportive rainbow ads appearing during pride month, says HVG, so rainbow ads are expected at the last match held in Hungary as well.
Buildings are being lit up in rainbow colours once again
On Friday night, MEPs of the Democratic Coalition projected “Hungary is not Orbán” on the wall of Fidesz’s office in Brussels, writes 24.hu.
According to Index, the Hungarian embassy in the Hague was lit up in rainbow colours on Friday. According to Péter Szijjártó, the action of Amnesty International was an unprecedented incident because, although they asked the Dutch authorities to prevent it, they refused to do so.
The match with many promises
Fans arriving at the Puskás Arena and the fan zone in Budapest are instructed by the organisers to hand over their rainbow-coloured flags at the entry, writes the Dutch AD, according to HVG. The Dutch supporters wanted to protest against the recently adopted anti-gay law in Hungary.
HVG claims that AD’s information was also confirmed by the Dutch Football Association, who wrote that, according to UEFA, only flags in the colours of the participating countries could be brought into the stadium and the fan zone.
According to infostart.hu, however, UEFA officially denied in a Twitter post that it had anything to do with the rainbow flags banned from the Puskás Arena, so, although several rainbow flags have been confiscated from Dutch fans, it is not known who took them.
Source: HVG, infostart.hu, The Guardian, euronews, Index, Sky Sports, Telex