In a massive show of joy and resistance on Saturday, tens of thousands of marchers choked the streets of Budapest to attend a renamed Budapest Pride Freedom parade, in defiance of the national government’s ban on Pride events.

“We believe there are 180,000 to 200,000 people attending,” the president of Budapest Pride, Viktória Radványi, told AFP. “It is hard to estimate because there have never been so many people at Budapest Pride.”

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The 30th anniversary of the city’s traditional Pride parade was banned by the nationalist Prime Minister Victor Orbán’s government this spring, following successive legislation that outlawed Pride gatherings in the country.

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Orbán and his right-wing Fidesz party described the Pride events as a physical and moral threat to children. He vowed severe legal consequences for anyone attending Saturday’s event.

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Instead, police stood idly by, and Orbán was crowned “king of European Pride” in absentia by his expected challenger in next year’s national elections.

“Yesterday, Viktor Orbán became the king of European Pride, because no one else has ever managed to mobilize such a large crowd for a demonstration against himself by inciting hatred and incitement,” said Peter Magyar, the Hungarian opposition leader.

Magyar’s new political party, Tisza, holds a 15-point lead over Orbán’s right-wing Fidesz in a recent opinion poll.  

Earlier this month, police announced they would follow the government’s threats of a crackdown on marchers, including the use of newly installed facial recognition technology along the parade route.

That led the progressive mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony, to recast the march as a separate municipal event, as a way to circumvent the need for the national government’s authorization.

The mayor said on Saturday that the march had become a symbol of discontent against a government that has weakened democratic institutions and undermined the rule of law.

“The government is always fighting against an enemy against which they have to protect Hungarian people,” said Karácsony. “This time, it is sexual minorities that are the target … we believe there should be no first and second class citizens, so we decided to stand by this event.”

“We came because they tried to ban it,” Timi, a Hungarian national marching with her daughter, who travelled from Barcelona, told the Guardian.

“This is about much more, not just about homosexuality,” Eszter Rein-Bódi told Reuters. “This is the last moment to stand up for our rights.”

Akos Horvath, 18, travelled two hours from southern Hungary to march and told AFP the event had “symbolic importance.”

“It’s not just about representing gay people, but about standing up for the rights of the Hungarian people.”

The march drew more than 70 members of the European Parliament and scores of politicians from across Europe, including Sophie Rohonyi, the president of Defi, a liberal Belgian party.

The party head said she came to Budapest to “show Mr. Orbán that just because he is elected does not mean that he can do whatever he wants.”

The right of assembly, she told The New York Times, cannot be “thrown away just because a prime minister wants to ban Pride.”

Human rights activist Greta Thunberg was in Budapest posting from the march, “in defiance” of Orbán’s “desperate attempt” to ban it.

“Pride is both a protest but also a celebration of love and who we are. This is yet another fascist attack on human rights. But you cannot ban love,” she said in a video reposted by Orbán’s propaganda minister.