The decision to cancel EuroPride in Belgrade is the right one to make as the event is something “that is entirely contrary to our people’s value system,” Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Porfirije said on Tuesday.
“We completely understand the essentially justified great concern of our people in the rough promotion and imposing of policies and ideologies that have the goal of collapsing the pillars that we have been building our identity on for centuries, for everything to become fragile, relative and fluid, who feel a deep and systemic threat to the fundamental values which they have been loyal to for centuries, especially the sanctity of marriage and the family,” the patriarch said.
He said the subject “has been artificially thrust upon us and is completely opposite to our people’s value system, and also those of our brethren and sisters of other faiths and nations with whom we live.”
“For this reason, we have voiced the reasons why we believe that it is necessary and justified to cancel EuroPride several times in direct talks with the representatives of our state,” he added.
The organisers of EuroPride said that the patriarch’s statement “has only deepened divisions, controversies and conflicts” and added that it was not true that “we are imposing anything on anyone.”
They also said that “it is precisely the declaration that people of a different orientation are evil that contributes to their public branding which can result in violence and persecution” and that life with love and tolerance “is a fundamental Christian value and one of the main reasons for organising EuroPride.”
Goran Miletić, one of the organisers of EuroPride 2022, set to take place in Belgrade on 17 September, announced that over 60 foreign politicians and NGO representatives have confirmed they will attend the event. Miletić also expressed his belief that the authorities will ensure the safety of everyone involved.
In a statement for the Tuesday edition of the Danas daily, Miletić said the police could not possibly “turn a blind eye” and “refuse to secure” the event, and warned that such inaction would cause a scandal.
According to him, the previous rulings of Serbia’s Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights have made it impossible to legally stop the Pride Parade from taking place.
“We will take to the streets because banning [the event] is illegal. The damage has already been done because there is talk abroad of cancellation and postponing – the wording is irrelevant – in the context of the authorities,” Miletić said, referring to the government’s recent recommendation for the event to be cancelled due to the country’s precarious security situation.
Miletić further stated that a public display – coupled with the full cooperation of the authorities in securing the event – is the only way to “undo at least some of the damage” caused by the talk of cancellation.
