Monday briefing: How Budapest Pride became a huge show of anti-Orbán defiance

The Guardian

12 hours ago

Good morning. In 1997, Budapest became the first capital in central and eastern Europe to hold a Pride parade. Three decades later, the march is firmly established as Hungary's biggest LGBTQ+ event, and, in the words of one opposition MP, 'a vital expression of joy, resistance and visibility'.
On Saturday, Budapest Pride took on the illiberal ambitions of Viktor Orbán and, rainbow flags flying high under a cloudless blue sky, as many as 200,000 marchers from 30 countries – the biggest turnout ever – were there to say it won. At least, for the time being.
Portraying themselves as the champions of traditional Christian and family values, the EU's disruptor-in-chief and his ruling national-conservative Fidesz party have, for more than a decade, led a determined crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights. This year they banned Pride, sparking a powerful backlash from organisers, rights campaigners and European politicians, dozens of whom marched in solidarity.
For today's newsletter, with European community affairs correspondent Ashifa Kassam, we look at why Orbán's crusade against 'woke culture' led to the ban, how it went ahead anyway, what led key EU figures finally to stand up to him – and what might happen now, in Hungary and beyond. That's after the headlines.
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Until Viktor Orbán and Fidesz were elected to government, Hungary was a progressive beacon in Europe's former eastern bloc, repealing discriminatory laws and, in 2007, legalising same-sex civil partnerships.
But progress since has been dramatically reversed. As far-right parties surge across the continent and global resistance to sexual and gender freedoms grows, Budapest has become a leading player in Europe's culture wars, and Pride its choicest target. Here's how that happened, and how it played out.
How and why has Hungary clamped down on LGBTQ+ rights?
Accusations Orbán has weakened the country's democratic institutions, undermined the rule of law and, in Brussels blocked pretty much every common European initiative of which he disapproves, are well known. Perhaps less familiar is the crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights he has led since becoming prime minister 15 years ago.
Within a year, backed by a two-thirds parliamentary majority, his government had passed a new constitution banning same-sex marriage, with later changes barring same-sex adoption and legally defining the family unit as heterosexual marriage. 'The basis of the family is marriage and/or the parent-child relationship. The mother is a woman and the father is a man,' it now reads.
In 2021, the government went further, passing so-called 'child protection legislation' barring any 'depiction or promotion' of homosexuality or gender change to minors – effectively banning LGBTQ+ people from featuring in school educational materials, films, adverts or TV shows aimed at the under-18s.
Earlier this year, parliament passed yet more new legislation, this time amending the country's law on assembly to make it an offence to hold or attend events – such as Pride – that violate the 'child protection' measures, and authorising facial recognition software to identify and fine people in the crowd.
Like other populist far-right governments, Ashifa Kassam said, Hungary has 'sought to make the LGBT community a scapegoat, much like migrants. And it's having real repercussions. We're seeing more violence against LGBTQ+ communities, more fear among trans people and suicide rates that are going up. It's a scary trend.'
So how come the march went ahead?
The latest restrictions sparked protests among Hungary's LGBTQ+ community and an outpouring of support beyond it. Amnesty International criticised them as a 'full-frontal attack on Hungary's LGBTI community' and 'blatant violation' of free speech and assembly obligations; more than 120,000 people from 73 countries signed its petition calling on police to allow the march to go ahead peacefully.
'Everyone should be able to be who they are, live and love freely. The right to gather peacefully is a fundamental right to be championed across the EU,' Hadja Lahbib, the EU's commissioner for equality, said. Hungarian police, however, confirmed it was now illegal to attend this year's Pride. People attending the parade could be fined between 6,500 and 200,000 forints (€16 and €500 euros), they said, while organisers could face up to a year in prison.
Cue the liberal mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony, long a fierce critic of the government's far-right rhetoric, who found a legal loophole. The gathering would go ahead, he said, because as long as it was organised by city hall, police would not be able to intervene: municipal events do not require official authorisation.
Still, the government persisted. Days before the march, Hungary's justice minister, Bence Tuzson, wrote to 33 foreign embassies that had jointly backed LGBTQ+ rights, warning them to stay away: 'The legal situation is clear: the Pride parade is a legally banned assembly,' he said. 'Those who take part in an event prohibited by the authorities commit an infraction.'
But Pride organisers hit back with a letter of their own, insisting the march was 'neither banned nor unlawful'. Upping the ante further, 20 EU governments also signed a collective statement criticising the ban – and more than 70 MEPs promised to participate in the parade.
In the event, they were joined by the vice-president of the European parliament, the Dutch education minister, the Spanish culture minister, the former Belgian prime minister Elio Di Rupo, the mayors of Brussels and Amsterdam, and more.
'In short, Budapest Pride 2025 became a sort of red line,' said Ashifa. 'It really symbolises something – a rallying call for the resistance, a chance to stand up against this wider rollback of rights that is becoming so blatant.'
Where do the politics come into it?
There is, obviously, no love lost between Orbán's Hungary and the EU. Budapest is denied access to €18bn in EU funds over rule-of-law concerns related mainly to issues such as corruption and the treatment of asylum seekers.
The commission has began proceedings over the 2021 'child protection' law, and is 'looking at' the assembly law (article 2 of the treaty of the EU, remember, says the bloc is founded on respect for human dignity in societies where 'pluralism, non-discrimination [and] tolerance prevail'.)
But the commission and its president, Ursula von der Leyen, were 'slow to get involved,' Ashifa said. 'As always, the line is: we'll just give Orbán ammunition.'
Last week von der Leyen finally spoke up, calling on Budapest to 'allow Pride to go ahead'. Orbán duly replied that the commission president 'thinks she can dictate to Hungarians from Brussels how they should live'.
A domestic factor may also play into Orbán's calculations: for months now, he has been trailing opposition leader Péter Magyar and his centre-right Tisza party in the polls. Magyar has studiously avoided comment on the whole LGBTQ+ issue, fearing a trap designed to cost him conservative voters in elections due next April.
'Orbán could well have been aiming to push Magyar into a corner, force him to take a stand on a contentious issue, allowing Orbán peel off voters in rural areas that will be critically important next spring,' Ashifa said. 'But he's resisted.'
What happens next?
The presence of so many European politicians may make waves in Brussels (although don't hold your breath). The commission is already examining Budapest's use of real-time facial recognition technology, which digital and human rights groups say represents a 'a glaring violation' of the EU AI Act.
In Hungary, the fact that so many marchers said they were there not just to defend the LGBTQ+ community but to protest against the government's wider crackdown on democratic freedoms, and the sheer size of the parade – organisers put it at between 180,000 and 200,000, against to a previous record of 35,000 – will, at the very least, be an embarrassment for Orbán.
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Quite what he does about it remains to be seen. The prime minister said before the march that Hungary was a 'civilised country' and police would not 'break up' the parade – but he also promised 'legal consequences'.
Repercussions for marchers may well start once attention has moved away, Ashifa predicted, with Orbán keen to stoke divisions ahead of the election. 'Fines could start hitting in a few months' time. We might see a more insidious clamping down,' she said.
'People are genuinely worried about a possible impact on their jobs and studies. It shows how far-reaching the government's tentacles are.'
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