Despite ban, Budapest Pride bigger than ever

The 30th Budapest Pride Parade was held on Saturday despite the Hungarian government having banned it this spring. This was no obstacle to it becoming the most attended such event ever in the Hungarian capital, and neither was the fact that the new regulations prohibit holding events that “promote homosexuality,” with organizers and participants potentially facing fines of up to 200,000 forints (500 euros).

Although establishing a definitive count of participants is not possible, at the time when those at the front of the parade arrived to the central stage set up in front of the BME campus, the end was still at Deák Square. A shot of the crowd recorded with a drone by travel-influencer Hunor Rácz is a good testimony to the size of the protest.

It was following the ban, in mid-June, that Budapest mayor Gergely Karácsony announced that the Municipal Government of Budapest will be the one organizing and hosting the event along with Szivárvány Misszió Alapítvány. The leadership of Budapest argued that as an event organized by the municipal government, it is not subject to the law on public gatherings. The police disagreed and said that they would act in accordance with the applicable laws, and made it clear that they did not view it as a municipal event.

Neither this, nor the temporary surveillance cameras set up alongside the parade’s planned route just days before the event was enough to stop tens of thousands of Hungarians and foreign visitors, including MEPs from taking part in the event on Saturday.

“This is my first Pride,” a sign hanging around the neck of an older woman at the Parade read. She told Telex's reporter that at least five people had come up to her to say that it was also their first time attending the event.

“To be honest, I'm actually ashamed that I hadn't been out before. I didn't just come out for LGBTQ rights, but for everyone, for freedom and against exclusion in general.”

One of the speakers on stage was Nikoletta Bogádi. She spoke about how, nearly 20 years ago, she stood behind the barrier shouting at the Pride marchers as a counter-protester. Since then, her eldest child has come out as transgender and one of her younger children as gay, and she has been participating in the march as a supportive activist for years. She apologized to everyone she had hurt in the past. “Now I know that it is not the spirit of Pride that we need to protect children from. (...) Had I not been able to change, I would have had to protect my child from myself,” she said. "To me, you are the freedom fighters of the present time. I wish you didn't have to be. (...) Thank you for teaching me to see!” she concluded.

Romanian politician and Vice-President of the European Parliament, Nicu Ștefănuță began his speech in Hungarian. "Love is not a crime; it must be protected, respected and celebrated. Because love is love. And it is stronger than hate.“

The record-breaking attendance of the protest notwithstanding, the public media did not mention it in any of the editions of its Sunday morning news programme, while the pro-government think tank, Nézőpont Intézet managed to contrive a completely unexpected view of the event. According to them, “Viktor Orbán has lured the opposition into a trap without them even noticing,”...and this only took him one step closer to winning the 2026 elections.

Government politicians were unanimous in their opinion that for the opposition parties, “the Pride Parade organized from Brussels” was more important than Budapest – even though the leader of the currently biggest opposition party (Tisza) had never encouraged their supporters to attend the event, and had largely resisted the governing politicians’ attempts aiming to make him openly support the parade.

Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office, Gergely Gulyás posted to that effect, as did Balázs Orbán, the Prime Minister’s Political Director, who also added: “It doesn’t matter how many politicians and international activists come to Budapest to demonstrate. It doesn’t matter how many condemning statements Brussels issues, or how many times they deploy their intended political nuclear bomb, Greta Thunberg to Budapest – the Hungarian people will be making the decisions about their own lives themselves.”

Viktor Orbán waited until Sunday to voice his opinion about the event, and he did so in a closed group chat of his “Fight Club”, as reported by the pro-government media:

“Yesterday was also enlightening. Brussels issued instructions that there must be a Pride Parade in Budapest. Their puppet politicians then carried out the order.

This is proof of what our lives would be like if the country were not led by a national government which protects our sovereignty. Orders coming from Brussels, which puppet politicians are ready to carry out in Budapest, with the voters of Tisza, DK and Karácsony taking to the streets... This is not pride, but shame."

The mayor of Budapest agreed with him on one point:

“I agree with the Prime Minister: yesterday we saw what this country would be like if they weren't in charge....A free, smiling, loving community that cares for and supports each other and exhibits solidarity,” Karácsony wrote in response to Viktor Orbán's assessment of Saturday's Pride Parade. He also attached photos of Pride to his post, adding that

"Saturday's march testified that there is life outside the current system, which is more beautiful, freer and happier.”

Péter Magyar, the leader of the biggest opposition party, Tisza, also commented on the record-breaking-sized Budapest Pride,

“Viktor Orbán became the European King of Pride yesterday, since no one has ever managed to mobilize such a large crowd against themselves by using hate speech and incitement,”

he wrote in response to Saturday's event.

He added that, in his opinion, the motto of the event could have been “The king is naked,” because it turned out that “Viktor Orbán has completely lost his identity as prime minister.

Within an hour after the event concluded, technicians were seen removing the temporary surveillance cameras from the route of the Parade in downtown Budapest. We asked the police whether they used facial recognition systems to identify individual participants at Saturday's event and whether they were planning on imposing fines.

We received a brief response:

“We would like to inform you that the Budapest Police Headquarters will act in accordance with the applicable laws and is currently investigating the events that took place at Saturday's gathering.”