A colourful “river” of people of all ages from across Europe marched through the centre of Thessaloniki in Northern Greece on Saturday, marking the end of a 10-day celebration of the LGBTQ community.
According to police, the parade was attended by more than 10,000 people with the events heavily guarded by riot police in order to avoid incidents after far-right parties that are hostile to the LGBTQ community registered gains across northern Greece in recent European elections.
Police had banned counterdemonstrations in the city to prevent any tensions or violence.
On Friday, a 34-year-old was arrested for urging a counter demonstration “against the destruction of the family to resist the LGBTQ junta.”
He was charged and will remain in custody until Monday.
Demonstrators holding colourful balloons, flags, whistles and drums danced and sang throughout the march. Some placards read “love makes the family”, “proud parents together with our LGBT children”, “one law is not enough”, and “ban on conversion practices in the European union”.
“Hundreds of volunteers have come from all over Europe to help make Thessaloniki Pride bigger and stronger. What is happening today is fantastic. We are very happy to see so many thousands of people participating in this parade,” said Lucas, 27, from Portugal.
“Thessaloniki was chosen among other reasons because of the slow progress on the rights of the LGBT community. Today we are sending a very important message: with solidarity we will succeed in every corner of Europe,” Thessaloniki Pride spokesman Apostolis Karampairis told AFP.
“Despite the fact that the law on same-sex couples has been passed, we still have a long way to go to make the sexual identity of every human being accepted by the whole of society,” 23-year-old student Dimitris Stefanakis added.
The conservative government earlier this year pushed through a bill legalising same-sex marriage and adoption despite opposition from the powerful Orthodox Church and some of its own ministers.
When the bill passed in February, dozens of people waving rainbow flags celebrated in front of the parliament building in central Athens.
However, the ruling New Democracy party of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis blamed the legislation for its weaker showing in EU parliament elections last week.
New Democracy, which has been in power since 2019, won the most votes in the ballot but its 28-percent share was lower than the 33 percent it obtained in the previous European elections and well below the 40 percent it won in Greek parliamentary elections in June 2023.
Mitsotakis told Bloomberg TV that the same-sex social reforms had “put off some traditional voters”.
Source: AFP
