Belgian Pride to vet political parties and businesses taking part

The organisers of Belgian Pride have announced stricter controls on which groups can take part, following complaints that the event has been taken over by political parties and big business.

Pride chairman Laurent Mallet said every participating organisation would undergo a compulsory, paid-for audit to assess how gender-inclusive they are.

The audits will be carried out by KliQ, a training organisation specialising in gender diversity. Mallet said participants would be assessed against five main criteria - but refused to say what they were "otherwise organisations will want to fix the results".

Last year's parade through Brussels attracted more than 100,000 visitors. No fewer than six political parties had a float in the procession.

A campaign group, Reclaim the Pride, tried to block some floats taking part, in protest against what it called "the political appropriation of Pride" and "pinkwashing".

"Belgian Pride has become a political, commercial and touristic circus,” the campaign group said last year. "Politicians arrive to take up this space that doesn’t belong to them and have monopolised it."