Prague Pride Festival
Around 50,000 people at the Rainbow Parade in Prague
The Rainbow Parade in Prague. photo
© Vondrouš Roman/CTK/dpa
After a two-year Corona break, the Rainbow Parade took place again in Prague. And many thousands came.
Thousands of people marched through the center of Prague on Saturday to demonstrate for the acceptance of sexual and gender diversity. The police estimated the number of participants in the rainbow parade at around 50,000, as reported by the CTK news agency. The rally was the highlight of the “Prague Pride Festival 2022” week of action, which began on Monday and is scheduled to last until Sunday.
While many politicians in some East-Central European EU countries still reject equal rights for homosexuals, prominent government politicians in the Czech Republic are now also supporting their concerns. The Mayor of Prague Zdenek Hrib and his wife were in the first rows of the parade on Saturday, as reported by the Novinky.cz news portal. Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky, who, like Hrib, belongs to the Pirate Party, took over the honorary protection for the entire festival week together with him and prominent local politicians.
Police also reported no major protests against the Rainbow Parade, apart from a small group of men holding banners with Bible quotations on Na Prikope (Am Graben) street. There were no incidents until the afternoon. The end of the demonstration was a large music concert on the Letna festival grounds. The Prague Rainbow Parade took place for the 12th time on Saturday after having to pause for the past two years due to the corona restrictions.