Protesters in Hungary block roads, bridges in opposition to new law banning LGBTQ+ Pride events

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Several thousand protesters blocked major thoroughfares and three bridges in the center of Hungary's capital on Tuesday in opposition to a recent law that effectively bans LGBTQ+ Pride events and restricts Hungarians' right to assembly.

The demonstration was the second within a week since Hungary's ruling Fidesz party used its two-thirds parliamentary majority last Tuesday to fast-track the law, seen by critics as the government's latest crackdown on the rights of the country's LGBTQ+ community.

Chanting “democracy” and “assembly is a fundamental right,” thousands of the demonstrators poured onto one of the city’s busiest roads, igniting colorful smoke bombs and blocking traffic. In the coming hours, they went on to blockade three of the city's bridges spanning the Danube, facing lines of police blocking their path.

One of the demonstrators, 26-year-old Paula Antalfy, said she believed the government’s recent steps to ban certain public events were “yet another step in the direction of dismantling democracy.”

“I feel like love should be free, and who you love is not a decision in any way,” she said. “That we would not be able to gather like this, as we do now, and stand in our own streets, in our own city, is something I just can’t agree with.”

Hungary's new law, which is reminiscent of similar restrictions against sexual minorities in Russia, amends rules on assembly to make it an offense to hold or attend events that violate Hungary’s contentious child protection legislation, which prohibits the “depiction or promotion” of homosexuality to minors under 18.

Authorities may now use facial recognition tools to identify individuals that attend prohibited events — such as the popular Budapest Pride which draws tens of thousands each year — and can issue fines for violators of up to 200,000 Hungarian forints ($546).

Hungary's right-wing populist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has in recent years taken aim at the country's LGBTQ+ community, prohibiting same-sex adoption and — in a 2021 child protection law — banning any LGBTQ+ content including in television, films, advertisements and literature that is available to minors.

Orbán's party plans to adopt a constitutional amendment in April that will codify the ban on public LGBTQ+ events. His government argues that its policies are designed to protect children from “sexual propaganda,” but critics view them as part of a broader effort to scapegoat sexual minorities and mobilize his conservative base.

Last week, a spokesperson for the United Nations’ human rights commission said that the recent law “results in arbitrary and discriminatory restrictions on the rights of LGBTIQ+ individuals to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and privacy.”

The statement drew attention to a part of the law which authorizes the government to use facial recognition technology to identify and fine participants of prohibited events, saying such tools “should never be deployed in a discriminatory manner through targeted surveillance of peaceful assemblies of LGBTIQ+ persons or other marginalized groups.”

Budapest Pride organizers, as well as Budapest's mayor, have vowed to go ahead with the city's Pride events, which are set to celebrate their 30th anniversary this summer. In response to the recent law, Pride organizers wrote: “This is not child protection, this is fascism.”

The organizer of Tuesday's protest, independent lawmaker Ákos Hadházy, called on Hungarians to continue taking to the streets until the government repeals the law. He told the crowd the government's measures to restrict the right of assembly and utilize surveillance tools against protesters was the start of “techno-fascism” in Hungary.

Benedek Lakos, a 27-year-old member of Budapest's LGBTQ+ community who attended the Tuesday demonstration, said he has not previously been active in expressing his opinion about actions taken by Hungary's government.

But the latest law, he said, had been “the last straw.”

"I feel now for a number of reasons that we have reached a level where, if there are no visible consequences for this (law) from the people, we can just start digging our own graves," he said.

Hungarian demonstrators occupy Liberty Bridge as they protest against a law that effectively bans LGBTQ+ Pride events and restricts the right to assembly, in central Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

Hungarian demonstrators occupy Liberty Bridge as they protest against a law that effectively bans LGBTQ+ Pride events and restricts the right to assembly, in central Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

Hungarian demonstrators occupy Liberty Bridge as they protest against a law that effectively bans LGBTQ+ Pride events and restricts the right to assembly, in central Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

Hungarian demonstrators occupying Liberty Bridge hold a banner reading "assembling is a fundamental right" as they protest against a law that effectively bans LGBTQ+ Pride events and restricts the right to assembly, in central Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

Hungarian demonstrators occupy Liberty Bridge as they protest against a law that effectively bans LGBTQ+ Pride events and restricts the right to assembly, in central Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Zoltan Mathe//MTI via AP)

Hungarian demonstrators occupy Liberty Bridge as they protest against a law that effectively bans LGBTQ+ Pride events and restricts the right to assembly, in central Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

FILE - Participants march during the 28th Budapest Pride parade in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, July 15, 2023. (Tamas Kovacs/MTI via AP, file)

FILE - A participant waves a rainbow flag during an LGBT rights demonstration in front of the Hungarian Parliament building in Budapest, Hungary on June 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky, File)

Waving EU and party flags Hungarian demonstrators protest against the amandment of the assembly law banning the Pride in downtown Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

Hungarian demonstrators protest against the amendment of the assembly law banning the Pride in downtown Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

Independent Hungarian MP and co-organizer Akos Hadhazy addresses demonstrators protesting against a law that effectively bans LGBTQ+ Pride events and restricts the right to assembly in downtown Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

Waving EU and party flags Hungarian demonstrators protest against a law that effectively bans LGBTQ+ Pride events and restricts the right to assembly in the downtown of Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

MPs of Momentum protest with flares during the plenary session of the Hungarian parliament in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (Boglarka Bodnar/MTI via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.

Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place Jan. 20, one year after he took office.

Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street in addition to the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and have supported Trump's second-term agenda. Banks are making the argument that such a plan would most hurt poor people, at a time of economic concern, by curtailing or eliminating credit lines, driving them to high-cost alternatives like payday loans or pawnshops.

“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.

About 195 million people in the United States had credit cards in 2024 and were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. Americans are now carrying more credit card debt than ever, to the tune of about $1.23 trillion, according to figures from the New York Federal Reserve for the third quarter last year.

Further, Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the past year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s. That’s significantly higher than a decade ago, when the average credit card interest rate was roughly 12%.

The Republican administration has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.

Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office.

In a joint statement, the banking industry was opposed to Trump's proposal.

“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives," the American Bankers Association and allied groups said.

Bank lobbyists have long argued that lowering interest rates on their credit card products would require the banks to lend less to high-risk borrowers. When Congress enacted a cap on the fee that stores pay large banks when customers use a debit card, banks responded by removing all rewards and perks from those cards. Debit card rewards only recently have trickled back into consumers' hands. For example, United Airlines now has a debit card that gives miles with purchases.

The U.S. already places interest rate caps on some financial products and for some demographics. The Military Lending Act makes it illegal to charge active-duty service members more than 36% for any financial product. The national regulator for credit unions has capped interest rates on credit union credit cards at 18%.

Credit card companies earn three streams of revenue from their products: fees charged to merchants, fees charged to customers and the interest charged on balances. The argument from some researchers and left-leaning policymakers is that the banks earn enough revenue from merchants to keep them profitable if interest rates were capped.

"A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion a year without causing massive account closures, as banks claim. That’s because the few large banks that dominate the credit card market are making absolutely massive profits on customers at all income levels," said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, who wrote the research on the industry's impact of Trump's proposal last year.

There are some historic examples that interest rate caps do cut off the less creditworthy to financial products because banks are not able to price risk correctly. Arkansas has a strictly enforced interest rate cap of 17% and evidence points to the poor and less creditworthy being cut out of consumer credit markets in the state. Shearer's research showed that an interest rate cap of 10% would likely result in banks lending less to those with credit scores below 600.

The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to reign in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long."

Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.

Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a plan in February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.

Hours before Trump's post, Sanders said that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.

Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.

President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

FILE - Visa and Mastercard credit cards are shown in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)