28-06-2025
Thousands turn out for 'illegal' Budapest Pride march
Words by Jamie Summers, ITV News Content Editor
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Budapest on Saturday to join the city's Pride event, despite it being outlawed by the Hungarian government.
Organisers say it is the largest attendance ever for Budapest Pride, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, as people turned out in defiance of the law to support the country's LGBTQ+ community.
Earlier this year, right-wing prime minister Viktor Orbán's government passed a new law which effectively made Pride illegal by limiting citizens' right to assembly.
It is the only country in the European Union to have banned Pride events.
But the move became a lightning rod for public anger, with thousands of Hungarians taking part in weekly protests in March and April against measures which many saw as an attack on civil liberties.
Supporters of Pride said consistently they would press ahead with the event, regardless of its legal status. Right-wing groups planned counter-protests along the march's route.
Earlier this month, the Mayor of Budapest gave his approval for the parade to be held in a bid to sidestep the law, but he was subsequently overruled by police.
Despite the threat of punishment, the circumstances around the event appeared to drive many to attend.
'It's very difficult to grow up as a gay man in such a conservative country like this, to become aware that you're different than others, and then accept that after all you're not different at all,' said Bálint, a 24-year-old gay man.
'I'm really angry at our government because they are tarnishing the rainbow so much. I came to previous Pride Parades with much less of a knot in my stomach.'
But others from beyond the LGBTQ+ also attended in protest at the government's actions.
Veronika, who regularly attends Budapest Pride, told ITV News this year's event is especially important.
'I came with the same love as in previous years, but this current government is so much against it. Why can't just everyone be happy?'
Under the new law, police can use facial recognition technology to issue fines ranging from around 20 to 500 euros.
It is not yet clear whether the threat to issue fines will materialise in the coming weeks - but opposition parties have indicated they will help to pay any fines or challenge them in court.
David Bedő, an opposition MP from the centrist Momentum Party, helped to organise the protests in April and encouraged people to turn out on Saturday.
'I know personally a lot of friends, acquaintances who who've never been to Pride before and now they said they're joining,' he told ITV News.
'I think this year's Pride turned into an anti-government demonstration pretty much. In the current situation, the government and the police cannot afford that anything. It's a strong message for the government.'
Bedő was banned from the Hungarian parliament for more than two months when the vote to ban Pride passed, after he and other opposition MPs let off smoke bombs in the chamber in protest – but feels the government have overreached.
He said: 'My first Pride was back in 2012, more than 13 years ago now.
"I was 20 when I first attended pride, I've been attending ever since, but I think this is probably going to be the most important Pride in the history of Hungary, so far at least.'
Dozens of politicians from across Europe also attended the parade, including the Mayors or deputy Mayors of Oslo, Barcelona and Amsterdam, while some organisations from the UK also took part.
'What's happening in Hungary is part of a broader, deeply worrying global trend, where LGBTI rights are under attack and Pride marches are increasingly being cancelled, banned, or violently disrupted,' said Sacha Deshmukh, Chief Executive of Amnesty International UK.
'Hungarians will not be pushed back. We must all continue to fight for a free, equal, and rights respecting Hungary.'
The Orbán government has previously been accused of targeting LGBTQ+ people, with bans on same-sex adoption and restrictions on people's ability to change their gender over recent years.
ILGA-Europe, an advocacy group which promotes LGBTQ+ rights across the continent, recently awarded Hungary one of the lowest scores in the European Union for its approach, with the ban on Pride singled out as an example of an increasingly authoritarian measure.
After 15 years in power, Orbán goes into a general election next spring amid poor polling and a resurgent opposition, indicating he may face an uphill battle to stay in power.
The move to ban Pride marches is the latest issue which has invoked stinging criticism from the European Union, but the Hungarian government shows little sign of changing course - Orbán posted on X this week, calling on the EU to 'refrain from interfering in the law enforcement affairs of Member States, where it has no role to play.'
