Two LGBTQ advocacy organisations have called for sweeping institutional reform after rainbow flags were burned on Easter bonfires in the Larnaca district villages of Vergina and Kalo Chorio on Holy Saturday, framing the incidents not as isolated acts of hooliganism but as evidence of deeper structural failures in education, politics and media.

A Repeated Pattern

Queer Collective, an LGBTQ advocacy group, said the episode marks the second consecutive year such incidents have taken place. In 2025, similar scenes were reported in Palodia, Lakatamia and Limassol. The organisation said the recurring cycle — images circulate, condemnations follow, and public debate focuses on the act itself rather than its causes — must be broken.

The group acknowledged that the law already provides a framework for action, noting that hate speech on the grounds of sexual orientation has been a criminal offence in Cyprus since 2015. However, it argued that prosecutions alone would not address the root causes.

"You can fine every person who puts a flag on a lambradjia and next year someone else will do it."

Symbolism and Context

The lambradjia is a traditional Cypriot Easter bonfire in which an effigy of Judas — the biblical figure associated with betrayal — is ceremonially burned. Queer Collective argued that substituting a rainbow flag for the Judas effigy carries a deliberate political message: that LGBTQ people are traitors to the nation. The group linked this symbolism to broader nationalist narratives that frame queerness, migration and multiculturalism as threats to Greek Cypriot identity.

The perpetrators, described as teenagers and young men in their early twenties, were characterised as a generation shaped largely by online environments. Queer Collective pointed to what it described as an algorithmic pipeline moving users from edgy humour toward outright bigotry, driven by influencers who package homophobia and misogyny as countercultural rebellion. The group said this radicalisation finds no meaningful counterweight in the Cypriot school system, where a student can complete twelve years of education without encountering a single positive reference to LGBTQ lives.

Institutions Lagging Behind Public Opinion

Queer Collective also highlighted a widening gap between public attitudes and institutional positions. Support for same-sex marriage in Cyprus climbed from 14 percent in 2006 to 50 percent in 2023, yet the education system, political class and the Church have not moved in step with that shift, the group said. It noted that following last year's lambradjia incidents, only AKEL and Volt publicly condemned what had occurred, and that the President of the House of Representatives was recently quoted describing society as "not ready" for marriage equality — despite polls indicating majority support.

Demands for Action

Queer Collective set out four concrete demands:

  • Integration of LGBTQ lives into the school curriculum as a core element, not an optional supplement
  • Media literacy education equipping young people to identify online radicalisation
  • Political leaders willing to publicly name and condemn hate, with tangible consequences attached
  • A media environment that connects individual incidents to the broader conditions generating them

Accept-LGBTI Cyprus also condemned the bonfire incidents, calling them "fires of hatred" and warning that burning LGBTQ flags in place of Judas effigies amounts to "education in violence and in the making of fascists out of our youth." The organisation accused institutions — including the Church, trade unions, political parties and the state — of complicity through silence, saying inaction sends a message that some lives matter less than others.

Accept called on police to enforce existing hate speech and anti-discrimination legislation and to issue a directive to local stations instructing them to prevent flags or symbols belonging to any group from being placed on Easter bonfires.