Hundreds of people, 700 according to the organizers, defied the ban on holding the Pride March in Oradea this Saturday, a city of 250,000 inhabitants located in western Romania. Local authorities denied permission for the fourth consecutive year, despite the European Commission’s request to guarantee the right to assembly. In this way, Oradea has become the only major city in the European Union that systematically blocks LGTBIQ+ community events.
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Participants gathered from 4:00 p.m. (one hour earlier in peninsular Spain) in front of the City Hall, disregarding warnings from security forces. Even before the march began, several attendees started to be fined. As officers imposed sanctions, protesters responded by singing I Don’t Care, I Love It (“I don’t care, I love it”), as reported by the local newspaper Bihoreanul. They also chanted slogans such as “Our rights are not stolen,” “Equal rights, not underpasses,” and “A city with so many colorful buildings and we’re scared of a rainbow.”
Some attendees displayed a sign with an image of the mayor of Oradea, the liberal Florin Birta, alongside Russian president Vladimir Putin and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, a frequent promoter of policies contrary to the rights of the LGTBIQ+ community. Among the participants was also the Romanian ombudswoman, Renate Weber, who recalled that the right to peaceful assembly is protected by the Constitution, and therefore criticized the mayor’s interpretation of the legislation.
The organizers accuse the City Council of acting for homophobic reasons, while the Council justifies the ban by citing complaints from thousands of residents opposed to the event. “Every year local authorities find new legal or technical excuses to prevent Oradea Pride,” Iulian Dițiu, co-founder and president of Ark Oradea, the organization responsible for the event, told El PAÍS.
According to Dițiu, the City Council argued in 2024 that none of the city’s parks were available at the requested time. In 2025, the organizers presented 12 alternative routes, and all were rejected. This year, they increased the number to over a hundred routes. But, last Wednesday they received the definitive answer: none were viable due to coinciding with other events or public infrastructure works.
“It gives the impression that the message they are trying to convey to us is that we are not welcome here,” Dițiu stated. In his opinion, the City Council has for years shielded itself behind technical arguments, although this time, for the first time since it began prohibiting the march in 2023, it added the defense of “good customs” as a justification.
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Last year’s edition gathered between 500 and 600 people despite not having authorization. Nine participants were then sanctioned with fines totaling around 4,000 euros. This year, according to Dițiu, the amount of the sanctions has risen to 1,000 euros per person.
Despite the ban, attendees marched through the streets escorted by a large police deployment on both sides of the march. The president of the ACCEPT organization assured El PAÌS that the mobilization demonstrated that “love is always stronger than institutionalized hatred and homophobia.” At the same time, he does not understand how authorities intend to go hand in hand with the European Union when it comes to absorbing community funds, but disregard the rights of equality and values it promotes.
The controversy has attracted growing international attention. More than 152 organizations from 30 countries signed a joint declaration demanding authorization for the march and insisting that it be held “in complete safety” and in accordance with European legislation. “After four consecutive years in which the Pride march has not been able to take place, it can no longer be spoken of as simple administrative or logistical difficulties,” the statement notes. “When an authority systematically prevents a community from gathering peacefully, a fundamental principle affecting all citizens is called into question,” the text continues.
The Ambassador of the Netherlands to Romania, Willemijn van Haaften, personally conveyed her support to the attendees and stated that she felt “honored” to participate in the event. The diplomat highlighted that a beautiful city is so thanks to all its citizens, who enrich the social and cultural mosaic of the community. The mayors of Budapest and Paris, Gergely Karácsony and Emmanuel Grégoire, also expressed their solidarity with the organizers. The situation has led to parallels being drawn between Oradea and Budapest, where Orbán’s government has sought to restrict Pride celebrations through various legislative initiatives.