In Budapest the Pride that challenges Orban. From Schlein to Calenda, Italian politicians in the square

From the Democratic Party's Elly Schlein secretary of state Elly Schlein to the leader of Azione Carlo Calenda, from the Iv's Ivan Scalfarotto foreign affairs officer to the M5s Alessandra Maiorino rights coordinator. The Italian delegation leaving for the Budapest Pride, an event that will be attended by activists and institutional representatives of all centre-left parties including Più Europa and Avs.

For the Green-Left Alliance at the procession that will openly defy Viktor Orban's bans, an MEP will participate, but not - as many expected - Ilaria Salis (who has been detained for over a year in a Hungarian prison), but her colleague Benedetta Scuderi. She explains: 'Ilaria will not be there, both because the decision on Budapest's request to revoke her immunity has been postponed, and because Maja, the German anti-fascist detained in Hungary is on hunger strike and fears that, because of her presence, there may be retaliation against her'.

The threat of 'legal consequences' for those taking part in Budapest Pride made by the Hungarian prime minister did not stop the departures. On the contrary, in Italy it has raised the level of anti-Orban polemics even higher. Più Europa, which will take part in the event with its president, Matteo Hallissey, reports of 'an intimidating climate that' its 'activists, as soon as they arrived in Hungary, could immediately breathe in: blanket checks at the airport by the authorities to unearth some dangerous rainbow flags. Orban may deploy the army but he will never stop the rights march', the promise.

Meanwhile, militants of the extremist Hungarian party Patria Nostra blocked the Szabadsag Bridge, a stage of the planned Pride route, with cars, which started from Budapest City Hall.

"We are here for freedom and democracy. You cannot ban love by law. You cannot erase people's identity, our bodies, we are people we have rights. Banning pride is a violation of European constitutional rights,' said PD leader Elly Schlein at a press conference alongside the president of the S&d group in the European Parliament, Iratxe Garcia Perez. "In my country, in Italy," she added, "laws against homophobia are being blocked: we must fight together. The shame is the homophobes not us who demonstrate'. So he concluded his speech with 'No pasaran', the watchword of the Spanish republicans at the time of the civil war.