Several thousand Hungarians mocked right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s moves to ban the annual Pride march by LGBTQ+ groups, dressed in grey and carrying banners ironically denouncing colours and diversity at a rally in central Budapest.

The rally, called by the Two-tailed Dog Party, a satirical movement, follows several other protests since Parliament, dominated by Orban’s nationalist Fidesz party, passed a law last month to ban Pride on the grounds that it could be harmful to children. The Pride march was meant to take place in late June.

While Fidesz says it is defending family values, critics see the move to ban Pride as part of a wider crackdown on democratic freedoms ahead of a general election next year. Orban will face a strong opposition challenger, seen by some recent opinion polls as pulling ahead.

Protesters at Saturday’s rally carried banners saying “being uniform is cool” and “listen to your heart, death to colours”.

“I would strip them (LGBT people) of their right to assembly, because they are all criminals,” said Samuel Tar, who joined the demonstration with his friends, all dressed in grey.

“They would like to express themselves, which is very harmful. Only I should be allowed to express myself, no one else.”

The Two-tailed Dog Party said with heavy irony that it called the rally to support Orban’s efforts to stamp out diversity, saying this trumps all other issues in Hungary, including high inflation, a lack of affordable housing and the poor state of public services.

“Every problem in the world stems from diversity and individualism,” it said.

The party started out as a fringe movement nearly two decades ago and shot to prominence when its leader, Gergely Kovacs won a mayoral contest in a Budapest district last year, defeating Orban’s Fidesz in a former ruling party stronghold.

The party has no lawmakers in parliament and although it calls itself the only sensible choice in a deeply polarised society, it is unclear if it can build enough support to get into parliament next year.