Pride organisers vow to march in Romanian city that has blocked event four years in a row

Organisers submitted more than 100 route options to authorities in Oradea but the city said that none of the routes were viable. Photograph: Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights View image in fullscreen Organisers submitted more than 100 route options to authorities in Oradea but the city said that none of the routes were viable. Photograph: Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Pride organisers vow to march in Romanian city that has blocked event four years in a row Oradea is only major city in EU where local authorities have repeatedly blocked Pride plans Campaigners in a Romanian city have vowed to go ahead with plans for a Pride march after local authorities denied them permission for the fourth consecutive year. Since 2023, campaigners in the western city of Oradea – population 180,000 – have sought authorisation for Pride events. Each year, however, they have come up against opposition, turning Oradea into the only major city in the EU where local authorities have repeatedly blocked Pride plans. “Every year the local authorities have managed to find legal or technical excuses to ban Oradea Pride events,” said Iulian Ditiu, the co-founder and president of ARK Oradea, the local organisers of Pride. In 2024, for example, they were told that none of the city’s parks were available at the times requested, he said. The following year, campaigners provided local authorities with 12 potential routes for the march, only to be told that none of the routes were possible. Before this year’s proposed march, slated to be held on Saturday, organisers submitted more than 100 route options. On Wednesday the city said that none of the routes were viable as they overlapped with other events or with major public infrastructure works. The city’s mayor, who is from a party that describes itself as liberal, conservative and Christian democratic, did not reply to a request for comment from the Guardian. Ditiu pointed to the wider significance of the consecutive bans. “It feels like the message that they are trying to send our way is that we’re not welcome here,” he said. “They have never said out loud that they are banning Pride for LGBT reasons. They’re always hiding behind technical reasons.” As organisers grapple with the possibility of another ban, their plight has attracted international attention. Before this year’s march, 152 organisations from 30 countries signed a statement calling on officials to allow the march to take place in “complete safety” and in line with EU law. “After four consecutive years in which the Pride march has been unable to take place, there can be no question of administrative or logistical difficulties,” the statement noted. “When an authority consistently prevents a community from assembling peacefully, a principle that concerns all citizens is undermined.” Their appeal, delivered recently to the local administration in Oradea, drew a direct comparison between Oradea and Budapest, where Hungary’s former leader