Bratislava, July 30 (CTK) – About 1000 people took part in a meeting and march in support of the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people (LGBT) in the streets of Bratislava Saturday.
No incidents occurred as the police succeeded in dividing the participants in the LGBT march from several dozen supporters of the ultra-right parliamentary Kotleba-People’s Party Our Slovakia (LSNS) of Marian Kotleba. Their two-hour protest event ended calmly.
The sixth Rainbow Pride festival of the LGBT community started with a march and a rally in the centre of the Slovak capital under strict security measures at 13:00 Saturday.
Activists and some public personalities, including Ombudsman Jana Dubovcova and MEP Monika Flasikova-Benova (government Smer-Social Democracy) addressed the participants. Flasikova-Benova called on parents not to prevent their children from expressing their minority sexual orientation.
Barriers and police prevented any uncontrolled entrance to the event.
The police also stopped participants in a meeting dubbed “Protest against the march of perverts in Bratislava,” organised by ultra-right extremists from the LSNS, who attempted to infiltrate into the crowd of LGBT supporters.
Afterwards, the extremists dissolved their meeting.
Marian Misun, one of the leaders of Kotleba’s party, told its followers that the EU is a “satanic club” supporting homosexuals and their perverted view of the world and that Slovakia should hold a referendum on its departure from the Union.
LSNS deputy Jan Kecskes called on the party’s followers to join the march for the family that started outside the parliament’s seat at 15:00. Some people dressed in the LSNS’s green T-shirts joined the calm march of some 100 people through the centre of Bratislava, staged by activists from the Proud of the Family.
