Allah's Willing Executioners

A new promotional film by the Norwegian Armed Forces features a Muslim soldier praying to Allah – a move that has sparked a debate.
“The aim is to show that the Armed Forces need diversity,” says Gry Bohne Hauge of the Norwegian Armed Forces.
Both the Norwegian flag and the Islamic crescent are visible on the soldier’s uniform.

“Allah is the Greatest,” says the soldier in the film.

The same campaign video also features, amongst other things, a gay couple kissing and a man holding a toddler in his arms.

Gry Bohne Hauge, Head of Marketing and Public Relations at the Norwegian Ministry of Defence, defends this cultural-Marxist approach.

– “If we are prioritising love and faith, it is because these are fundamental rights and values that the armed forces are meant to protect for everyone living in Norway,” she tells Kampanje.

She also explains that the armed forces want to show that they are looking for personnel from diverse backgrounds.

– It’s about showing that the armed forces need diversity and should be a good place to work, no matter who you are, who you love or what you believe in, says Gry Bohne Hauge.

The recruitment film has been heavily criticised on social media. Journalist Espen Teigen from the conservative magazine “Document” writes in an X post that the campaign runs counter to Norwegian tradition.

“Enough is enough. Activists within the armed forces are mocking our ancestors, our culture and our history. ‘Allahu akbar’ and Islam are not part of the Norway we are defending. Our ancestors did not sacrifice their lives for this. Islam is the exact opposite of our values,” writes Teigen.

Nå får det være nok. Aktivister i Forsvaret spytter på våre forfedre, vår kultur og historie. «Allahu akbar» og islam er ikke en del av det Norge vi forsvarer. Det er ikke dette våre forfedre ofret livene sine for. Islam er selve motpolen til våre verdier. pic.twitter.com/e7B31keGo4

— Espen Teigen (@espenteigen) June 19, 2026

friatider via The Religion of Peace

A 21-year-old Afghan migrant has been arrested for a mass groping attack and attempted rape against underage girls at a German swimming pool in Schwäbisch Gmünd.

At least four girls aged 12 to 14 were victims of sexual assaults last Saturday afternoon at the swimming pool, where the 21-year-old suspect reportedly groped their buttocks and thighs as well as trying to pull off their bikinis.

In one case, he attempted to penetrate one girl’s vagina with his finger, which police are investigating as a potential rape under the legal definition.

The girls successfully fought the man off before he was arrested by police officers.

The public prosecutor’s office requested an arrest warrant, but the presiding judge suspended it.

Now, the Afghan is free on the streets, with only the condition he not visit any public pools.

German news outlet Tagesschau has reported on the incident has not disclosed that the suspect is an Afghan migrant. This omission fits a pattern at the taxpayer-funded outlet that has been sharply criticized by the right. Other outlets, however, reported his nationality.

The story is very similar to a piece that ran just yesterday by Remix News, in which an Indian migrant sexually assaulted four underage Italian girls at a waterpark in Italy. The Indian migrant committed suicide inside his police cell just 48 hours later.

Last year, nine girls were sexually assaulted at a swimming pool in Germany by Syrian men, fueling national anger over migrant crime.

In 2023, in the German city of Stuttgart, police arrested a 23-year-old Syrian migrant who is accused of groping several women at an outdoor swimming pool over Pentecost weekend.

In total, seven women, ranging from ages 12 to 18, were sexually assaulted at the swimming pool in three different incidents. Three men in total were taken into custody, including a 23-year-old Syrian migrant.

In Cologne in September 2023, eight foreign nationals were arrested for surrounding and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in a swimming pool. The girl managed to break free and alert police, who detained the suspects shortly after.

In 2022, three 12-year-old girls were sexually assaulted in the Kaufbeuren public swimming pool in Bavaria by a group of six older teenagers described as having dark skin and speaking broken German. Police are still looking for the suspects.

The internal report stated, “(We) can confirm a surge in sex crimes at these establishments. In particular rape and the sexual abuse of children in bathing establishments have given us grave cause for concern. The perpetrators are, for the most part, immigrants.”

In 2022, violence in German outdoor swimming pools alarmed the Federal Association of German Swimming Champions (BDS) to such an extent that its president, Peter Harzheim, said he could no longer recommend that families visit such facilities on weekends.

While speaking to Bild TV, Harzheim claimed he would be “acting irresponsibly” if he attended an outdoor pool with his own three grandchildren.

rmx

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the French radical Left party La France Insoumise and candidate for the upcoming French presidential elections, advocated for large-scale regularisation scheme for illegal immigrants and clarified the party’s anti-EU stance.

Like Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Mélenchon framed regularisation as both an humanitarian and economic measure, arguing that granting legal status to undocumented workers would increase the number of contributors to France’s social security system.

“We support granting legal status to all workers. By doing so, we would immediately gain a substantial number of new contributors to the social security system,” he told reporters during an online press conference for non-mainstream media.

According to FIPECO, a non-profit public-finance research organisation founded by former Court of Auditors judge François Ecalle, the financing needs of social security agencies amounted to €6.7 billion euros in 2025.

The left-wing leader also criticised France’s handling of residence permit renewals, arguing that state administration is contributing to the growth of the undocumented population.

“Our first priority would be to reorganise the system surrounding the ten-year residence permit. The current situation has become completely absurd,” he said.

“It is actually the state administration that is turning people into undocumented migrants—people who previously had legal papers but whose renewals have been made practically impossible. As a result, they end up being treated as if they were offenders by prefectures and the administrative services responsible for these matters, ” he added.

Mélenchon further called for a more humane approach to migration, arguing that children, families and long-term residents should be eligible for accelerated regularisation procedures.

The LFI leader also criticised European migration policy, particularly proposals to return asylum seekers and migrants to third countries outside the European Union.

“The problem is that the European Union has decided to send people back directly to third countries,” he said.

On June 17, the European Parliament voted in favour of faster deportation and tough return rules of illegal immigrants.

During the press conference, Mélenchon also reaffirmed LFI’s doctrine of “European disobedience”, under which a future LFI government would refuse to apply European Union rules.

“We disobey European rules if they result in social or environmental regression,” he said. “We also disobey them if they prevent social or environmental progress.”

The comments reflect a longstanding position within LFI that France should remain within the European Union while declining to implement EU measures considered incompatible with the party’s domestic policy objectives.

According to estimates from France’s Interior Ministry, the number of undocumented migrants living in France ranges between 600,000 and 900,000 people, with most estimates centring around 700,000.

Regularisations based on employment remain granted each year fluctuates depending on administrative practices and government priorities.

The number of regularisations based on employment has been declining in France. Last year approximately 28,610 regularisations were recorded nationwide.

On the first day alone, 13,500 migrants submitted applications through the Spanish Government’s new “extraordinary regularisation” scheme. https://t.co/fUalBd0D8v

— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) April 17, 2026

brusselssignal

The Diocese of Saint Gallen, Switzerland’s, “Ich bin Dabei” (“I’m In”) campaign meant to encourage lay participation in the Church includes a poster calling for the “first female pope.”

The diocese’s ongoing campaign, which officially launched in May, includes several posters displayed in about 25 villages and towns as well as on its website, with laypeople’s faces promoting the discussion of several issues, such as helping the poor, clerical abuse, and “diversity.”

The most egregious poster features a laywoman’s face, saying, “Working together to pave the way for the election of the first female pope? I’m In.”

The webpage for this poster claims that women must be treated as equal to men “in all circumstances.”

“As believers, we work together to further develop the Church. For the Catholic Church in the Diocese of St. Gallen, ‘together’ truly means ‘together,’” the page says. “That is why it actively promotes equality between men and women. For the Catholic Church in the Diocese of St. Gallen, it is clear: women must be treated as equals to men—in all circumstances.”

Another section of the page entitled “A church with women” further stresses a purported need to eliminate the “gender inequality” and calls for gender to play no role in the “church community,” seemingly in a nod to female “ordination.”

“Our work is aimed at everyone who believes women should have the same rights as men and who wants to eliminate gender inequality,” the webpage states. “Through relevant projects, innovative ideas, and female leaders, we promote the status of women in the Church. Let us build a church community where gender plays no role and everyone has the same rights and responsibilities.”

The Catholic Church teaches that it is impossible for women to validly receive the sacrament of Holy Orders. In his 1994 apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, Pope John Paul II reaffirmed this perennial teaching:

Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.

Furthermore, while the Church has always condemned hatred and discrimination against women, St. Thomas Aquinas and others have reiterated the Church’s teaching that women should be subject to men in certain ways and, therefore, men and women are not “equal” in all respects, though they have “perfect equality as human persons” (CCC 369).

The Diocese of St. Gallen is known to most Catholics as the meeting place of the infamous St. Gallen Mafia, a group of high-ranking, heterodox clerics who opposed Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s election to the papacy in 2005 and reportedly plotted to elect Jorge Mario Bergoglio as pope. The group had multiple meetings in St. Gallen, Switzerland, between 1995 and 2006.

The diocese has also become notorious for its heterodoxy regarding the “ordination” of women. Indeed, shortly after his 2025 election to the papacy, Pope Leo XIV appointed Father Beat Grögli, a strong proponent of “female ordination,” as the twelfth bishop of St. Gallen.

Grögli previously said that the Church needs “a broad roof” and, according to a report by SRF, stated in response to a diocese’s questionnaire that “The ordained ministry [Holy Orders] can no longer just be a matter for men.”

During a press conference after his election, he reiterated, “The women’s priesthood will come,” but stressed that “we have to walk the path together,” in reference to the Universal Church.

lifesitenews

The endless slaying of France by the invaders.

The Southern French town of Narbonne, located in the Occitania region has been rocked by the brutal beating of a 17-year-old boy who was found seriously injured on Friday on a construction site, and later died.

The public prosecutor of Narbonne, Jean-Philippe Rey, confirmed that five people, including three minors, were indicted for attempted murder and placed in pre-trial detention.

Images of the attack have gone viral on social media platforms, where multiple users identified the attackers as North African migrants.

Le Figaro reported (translated from the French):

“According to the information provided by the prosecutor’s office, the victim, who lived in a home where she had been placed by the Child Welfare Agency (ASE), died on Tuesday. The death “occurred while the five suspects were being presented before an investigating judge,” the magistrate said. The latter was therefore not yet aware of the young man’s death when he pronounced their indictment for attempted murder. The motivations of the alleged perpetrators “are not known at this stage,” the prosecutor also explains.

The case dates back to Friday. The teenager was allegedly lured and violently assaulted around 7 p.m. on a construction site located on Quai d’Alsace, in Narbonne, report our colleagues from L’Indépendant. It was not until the next morning, around 9 a.m., that a worker discovered his [unresponsive] body at the scene.”

Emergency services found the young man in critical condition, with multiple facial injuries, bruises, as well as bleeding from his nose and mouth.

He was urgently transferred to the Perpignan medical center.

“Meanwhile, the police quickly followed the lead of a collective assault after watching a video posted on social media, filmed by one of the group members, showing the beating. The public prosecutor of Narbonne confirmed that the footage showed ‘a group of several young men beating the victim and leaving him motionless on the ground’. The analysis of this footage led to the identification and then the arrest of five suspects.”

Investigators are now calling this a premeditated act, but the exact circumstances of the tragedy and its motive remain unclear.

Ouest France reported (translated from the French):

“’The evidence collected suggests that these extremely serious facts were premeditated and that the defendants had ambushed the victim by luring him into a construction site to beat him to death’, [the magistrate, Jean-Philippe] Rey said at a press conference.

The five suspects, identified thanks to videos circulating on social networks, were quickly arrested and placed in police custody before being presented on Tuesday to an investigating judge, who indicted them for attempted murder.

It was during their appearance before the investigating judge that ‘the death of the victim was brought to the attention of the prosecutor’s office’.”

thegatewaypundit

Denmark is set to ban the Islamic call to prayer under plans for a radical crackdown on creeping “Islamisation”.

Morten Bodskov, of the left-wing Social Democrats party, confirmed the newly-elected Danish Government would pick up a probe into whether such a prohibition would be legal.

He told Danish news outlet Ritzau: “The call to prayer should not be heard over Danish rooftops.

“It has no place in Denmark, and you shouldn’t be in any doubt whether you’ve ended up in a suburb of Islamabad when you walk around Denmark.”

The minister further said a gradual “Islamisation” was “taking up too much of the public space” in the Scandinavian nation.

This marks the third occasion that a Danish Immigration Minister has attempted to establish a legal basis for outlawing the public call to prayer.

Previous efforts were made by the Social Democrats in both 2020 and 2025.

The Adhan is the traditional summons to prayer, and is broadcast five times daily from mosque minarets using loudspeakers.

Local regulations in certain parts of Denmark, including Copenhagen, already prevent the call from being amplified due to noise restrictions.

Copenhagen’s Grand Mosque has an existing arrangement with local authorities under which it does not broadcast an outdoor call to prayer.

The proposed nationwide ban faces potential legal hurdles, however.

Government investigators must balance constitutional protections for religious worship against the interests of those who live near mosques.

Denmark’s constitution guarantees the right to public worship, though certain exceptions exist.

These include bans on preaching that undermines democracy, and restrictions on donations to outlawed organisations.

The announcement comes as Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen embarks on her third term in office, having begun the new administration earlier this month.

Her Government has enacted some of Europe’s most stringent migration policies – and is seen as a model for “low-immigration left” which parts of the centrist Blue Labour group, led in the Commons by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, have looked to follow.

Under controversial “ghetto” legislation, authorities have the power to compel migrants to move from neighbourhoods deemed to have excessive concentrations of foreign-born residents.

Asylum seekers may be required to surrender their jewellery and other valuables to fund their housing costs.

Those whose claims are refused do not receive any financial help.

During the 2015 refugee crisis, when more than one million people sought “sanctuary” in Europe from the Middle East, Denmark admitted significantly fewer asylum seekers than its neighbours.

Ms Frederiksen returned to power this month following March’s snap election, despite her party failing to win a parliamentary majority.

Months of intricate coalition negotiations followed the vote.

She ultimately assembled a four-party administration comprising the centrist Moderates, the Social Liberals and the Green Left.

This arrangement has been nicknamed the “four-leaf clover” coalition.

The government additionally relies on backing from the Red-Green Alliance, an eco-socialist grouping comparable to Britain’s Green Party under Zack Polanski.

Ms Frederiksen triggered the early election seeking a reinforced mandate to respond to US President Donald Trump’s repeated threats regarding Greenland, the autonomous Danish territory.

gbnews

Germany is down and out.

13 months into his Chancellorship, Friedrich Merz is polling as the most unpopular German head of government in modern times.

That apparently does nothing to tamp down his cocky self-confidence and sense of self-importance, which so annoy the public.

And things may be about to take a turn for the worse as the German financial reality is biting.

To begin with, Germany is considering raising its pension age from 67 to 70 – the kind of move that set France ablaze for months while Emmanuel Macron tried to pretend all was great.

Germany is Europe’s largest economy, but it is stagnant, and the public finances are collapsing, so a ‘government-appointed commission’ has recommended a ‘radical overhaul of the pension system’.

Germany's Pension Age Heading to 70 By the End of Century

Germany's pension commission proposed raising retirement to 70 by the 2090s, scrapping early exit at 63, and investing pension funds in the stock market.https://t.co/2tj2Hhz1Bk

— Clash Report (@clashreport) June 24, 2026

The Telegraph reported:

“The commission, whose proposals are set to be presented to Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, on Tuesday, has suggested incremental increases to the pension age every decade according to ‌life ‌expectancy, rising to 70 by 2092 under its current calculations.

They propose a 2:1 ratio formula. For every additional year of statistical life expectancy gained by the population, eight months must be spent working and four months can be spent in retirement.”

Currently, Germany takes the contributions taken from current workers to fund the pensions of current retirees, but the former keeps shrinking, while the latter keeps growing.

“We want to reform our country in such a way that future generations, young generations, also have the opportunity to live in freedom, in peace and in prosperity,” said Mr Merz last week.

[…] The commission also wants to reduce the number of gold-plated civil servant pensioners who receive an average of more than €40,000 (£35,000) a year. A recent calculation by Welt newspaper found the annual cost of these pensions, which teachers in many states can access, to be €67bn (£58bn).”

Germany is set to shelve the purchase of six F126 anti-submarine warships https://t.co/GaJBDRfG4B

— Bloomberg (@business) June 24, 2026

In the meantime, defense giant Rheinmetall saw its shares fall sharply after Berlin scrapped its F126 frigate program, a project that already spent around $2.6 Billion in taxpayer money.

Euronews reported:

“Rheinmetall shares fell as much as 13% after the German government scrapped plans for a major warship order from the firm, which would have been the biggest warship commission since the Second World War. The news magazine “Der Spiegel” reported on Tuesday that the multi-billion-euro project to build six of the world’s largest frigates, the F126, had been cancelled.

The ministry in Berlin said the decision was a response to significant delays, foreseeable cost increases and other risks. However, cancelling the contract could prove costly for taxpayers.

At the same time, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius wants to procure eight smaller frigates instead. To that end, Berlin awarded new contracts to defense contractor TKMS, whose shares rose about 10% in early trading on Wednesday.”

thegatewaypundit

The police officers who handcuffed and arrested dying teen Henry Nowak took around eight minutes to find that he had been stabbed after initially dismissing his plea, according to a recently released full transcript.

Following a trial that saw 23-year-old Vikrum Digwa sentenced to at least 21 years in prison for the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak with a traditional Sikh blade in Southampton, England, the Hampshire Constabulary released a partial, 3-minute clip of police body cam footage in which officers were seen handcuffing the dying teen and refusing to believe that he had been stabbed.

The Southampton Crown Court heard that Digwa was a serial liar and had told the police a fabricated story that Nowak had been racially abusive to him. Despite Nowak’s pleas, saying in a strained voice that he could not breathe and that he had been stabbed, officers apparently bought Digwa’s lies. At one point in the clip, an officer infamously replied to Nowak’s claim of being stabbed, “I don’t think you have, mate,” as he handcuffed and arrested him.

On Wednesday, the BBC published the purported full transcript of the fatal events, in which the public broadcaster reported that officers took nearly eight minutes before realising that Nowak had indeed been stabbed. According to the report, a female officer asks for a flashlight and scissors to inspect Nowak at around five and a half minutes into the interaction.

After seven minutes and 33 seconds, the officer cuts through the teenager’s clothing, and the other male police officer asks if he had been stabbed.

“Yes, he’s got a stab… there’s a mark there,” the female officer replies. The male officer said, “That makes it worse. He’s got a stab… I’m pushing on a f****** stab wound.”

“That’s okay. It’s fine… It’s not coming out. It’s fine. Keep going. Keep going. It’s not bleeding out,” the female officer said.

The transcript ended around 9 minutes in, when ambulance staff arrived on the scene and took over attempts to aid Nowak. Before concluding, the transcript recorded the male officer telling a paramedic that they had  “just discovered a stab wound” in Nowak’s chest.

BLOOD-BOILING. Authorities have release just three minutes of bodycam footage where officers arrived at the scene of Henry Nowak's murder, cutting off right after the moment one officer realizes the white teen stabbing victim's eyes have stopped moving. https://t.co/lTFeB0jyGx

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) June 2, 2026

According to the BBC, attempts to save Nowak’s life continued for another 51 minutes; however, they proved unsuccessful, and the 18-year-old was later pronounced dead by an emergency doctor who was flown in by helicopter to the scene.

The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary has claimed that a pathologist confirmed that “there was nothing officers could have done that day to save Henry”, given that the wound had caused “extensive” internal bleeding.

However, the response from the police has come under heavy scrutiny and sparked protests in Southampton over what many have asserted was an example of two-tier policing in which ethnic minorities who allege racism are given preferential treatment over white Britons.

During the trial of Nowak’s murderer, Vikrum Digwa, Judge William Mousley KC told the Southampton Crown Court that the “genuine shock” of the officer when he finally realised that the teen had actually been stabbed “tends to show that he was doing his best in a very difficult situation.”

However, some, such as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, have said that the tragic death was an end result of British institutions being infected with the ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ ethos, in which authorities are trained to seek to elevate ethnic minorities and treat the native white population with suspicion.

Mr Farage warned that British society risks being “ripped apart” and devolving into a situation in which “communities start to distrust each other and deeply distrust the police and all the other institutions of this country”

“We need a change in culture. Enough of anti-white prejudice. A promotion of the idea that white lives matter just as much as black lives. An end to DEI and positive discrimination, but a country that treats everybody equally and fairly before the law,” he said earlier this month. “This is serious, this is urgent. I fear for where our society should be in a few short years if we don’t grip this and do it very, very quickly.”

breitbart

A child under the age of 12 has become the first person in that age group to be euthanised in the Netherlands since the country extended its euthanasia laws two years ago.

Dutch Health Minister Sophie Hermans revealed the case in a letter to parliament, stating that the child died at the end of last year. No details about the child’s age, gender, or medical condition have been disclosed.

The Netherlands legalised euthanasia for terminally ill children aged between one and 12 in 2024.

Before the change, euthanasia was only available to newborns under specific circumstances and to children aged 12 and over.

The law permits the practice only when a child is suffering unbearably, has no prospect of recovery, and is expected to die in the foreseeable future. Parents must give their consent.

According to Hermans, the case was reviewed by a specialist committee responsible for examining all medically assisted deaths involving children. The committee has also discussed the case with the doctor involved and passed its findings to public prosecutors, who will determine whether the procedure complied with Dutch law.

When the legislation was expanded, Dutch authorities anticipated between five and ten cases involving children each year. However, no such cases had been reported until now.

The development comes amid continuing debate over euthanasia and assisted suicide both in Europe and beyond. The Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalise euthanasia for people experiencing unbearable suffering from incurable illnesses when it introduced the practice in 2002.

Official figures show that as many as 10,341 euthanasia deaths were recorded in the Netherlands last year, representing a 3.8% increase compared with the previous year.

Approximately 85% of cases involved patients suffering from serious illnesses such as cancer or lung disease, while three-quarters were aged over 70. Euthanasia now accounts for around 6% of all deaths in the country.

In 2014, Belgium became the first country in the world in which euthanasia was available for all children. Around 4% of all deaths in Belgium are caused by euthanasia.

Critics warn that once euthanasia is legalised, the rules may gradually broaden, allowing more people to qualify for it than originally intended.

In Spain, the euthanasia of a 25-year-old woman known as Noelia earlier this year prompted controversy because her request was linked largely to psychological suffering rather than a terminal physical illness.

In the United Kingdom, Labour MP Lauren Edwards has revived legislation that would legalize assisted dying for terminally ill adults in England and Wales. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was originally passed by the House of Commons last year, but was not passed by the House of Lords amid fears that vulnerable people could be pressured into asking to die.

europeanconservative

The man who threw the LGBTQ Pride flags from Budapest’s Elizabeth Bridge into the Danube one by one on Sunday has been identified and detained. The Mayor’s Office, led by Gergely Karácsony, had filed a complaint in the case on suspicion of intentional vandalism.

When contacted about the state of the investigation, the Budapest Police Headquarters said in a statement that investigative work had led them to identify the alleged perpetrator: a 58-year-old man from Mogyoród, who was arrested at his home on the evening of June 22, 2026.

The man admitted to the act and is now saying he is proud of his act and did not need a lawyer during questioning.

“I am proud of what I have done and would do the same tomorrow. I didn’t even ask for a lawyer during the police interrogation. I didn’t need one, because I was just doing what my personal beliefs dictated,” he said.

🇭🇺🏳️‍🌈LGBT Pride flags were ripped down from the famed Elizabeth Bridge in Budapest and tossed in the river one by one.

The flags were put up right before a Pride Parade scheduled for June 27 in the Hungarian city.

Many conservatives have been angered over the flags, which… pic.twitter.com/NJbRl6FlHC

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) June 22, 2026

He added: “Hungary is a Christian state with a thousand-year history. Gays don’t bother me, but don’t force the sight of their love on me or anyone else. I am convinced that I have not committed a crime; I believe that rainbow flags have no place on the Elizabeth Bridge.”

The 58-year-old man, who asked not to be named, gave an interview to a news portal, saying he had waited for police at the gate of his country house on Monday night. He believes Pride flags have no place either on the Elizabeth Bridge or on the wall of City Hall, Hungarian outlet Index reports.

“I decided to go into town and take down those flags for the sake of my kids and our children’s future. My intention was not to vandalize. I think the Hungarian flag should have been in that place. When I threw the flag into the water, I made sure not to endanger ship traffic,” said the man from Mogyoród, who drove to Budapest and parked beneath the Elizabeth Bridge.

Police reportedly identified him by his license plate. He said that an hour later he was taken to the District V police station on Szalay Street, from which he was released after questioning.

The flags had been installed on the bridge by the capital’s leadership and disappeared on Sunday, with a perpetrator caught on video tossing them into the river.

A politician of the right-wing Our Homeland party (Mi Hazánk), Előd Novák, announced on Monday that he would cover any “fine for removing the rainbow rags.” In response, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony said that no matter what Novák attempts, the rainbow flags would still be flying on the Elizabeth Bridge during the upcoming Pride march.

“We will put these flags back up for Pride. If they are taken down, we will put them back again, and then they will just have to put up with it,” Karácsony said.

rmx