On Tuesday the Hungarian Parliament adopted an amendment to the law enabling a ban on the Pride march in Hungary. During the vote, politicians from the progressive opposition party Momentum attempted to disrupt the proceedings by igniting smoke flares in the chamber, creating chaos in an effort to prevent the vote from taking place.
According to a social media post by Fidesz parliamentary leader Máté Kocsis, one MP from the governing party, Gábor Bányai, who barely recovered from Covid, required emergency medical treatment due to exposure to the smoke inside the chamber. Kocsis also reported that Ágnes Kunhalmi, an MP from the opposition Hungarian Socialist Party, was visibly affected by the stunt. Deputy Speaker János Latorcai stated that the disorderly MPs would face sanctions.
Political Director of the Hungarian Prime Minister Balázs Orbán also reacted to the odd event. ‘Dangerous radicals sought to choke our parliamentary debate using unsafe tactics imported from abroad. Hungarians all know the liberal playbook now,’ he wrote in a post on X, adding that such actions have no democratic mandate in Hungary.
Same Tactics
Tuesday’s events bore a striking resemblance to the scenes that unfolded in the Serbian parliament just weeks earlier. As Hungarian Conservative reported, on 4 March opposition politicians in Serbia, demanding the government to step down before proceeding with the agenda, boycotted the vote and engaged in behaviour that disgraced both the institution of parliament and democracy itself.
In what appeared to be a well-coordinated attack on the Serbian government, opposition MPs hurled smoke bombs, flares, eggs, and other objects at government representatives. They chanted anti-government slogans, making it impossible to present proposals. Three politicians were injured during the incident, including one MP who suffered a stroke amid the chaos and had to be hospitalized in a life-threatening condition.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić called for the criminal prosecution of all those who engaged in disorderly conduct, describing the opposition’s actions as ‘violent and hooligan-like’ in an interview broadcast on Tuesday evening. He stressed that such scenes had never occurred in the legislature since Serbia’s transition to a multi-party system.
Colour Revolution Attempt
Serbia is currently facing one of its most serious crises in recent years, with anti-government protests continuing in the capital for months. The demonstrations began after a canopy collapsed at Novi Sad railway station, killing 15 people. Although many officials and high-ranking politicians, including Prime Minister Miloš Vučević, resigned in the aftermath, the protests have persisted.
Vučić and the Serbian government have accused external forces of orchestrating the demonstrations with the aim of staging a colour revolution. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a close ally of Vučić, has also weighed in, framing the events within a broader geopolitical struggle. Orbán argued that the unrest should be seen as part of a wider civilizational clash between globalist progressives and patriotic forces committed to national sovereignty.
‘Since the globalists “lost Washington”, efforts to destabilize Central Europe have intensified’
He noted that since the globalists ‘lost Washington’—a reference to Donald Trump’s return to the White House—efforts to destabilize Central Europe have intensified, with Slovakia, Serbia, and Hungary all facing attacks on their sovereignty.
Last week Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó also characterized the demonstrations as an attempted colour revolution, asserting that Serbia exemplifies how foreign forces seek to undermine patriotic governments in Central and Eastern Europe. ‘In recent years, international actors have repeatedly instigated colour revolutions across the world. Each of these revolutions has ended in tragedy, destabilizing entire regions for prolonged periods,’ Szijjártó remarked.
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