Record crowd defies ban at Budapest Pride

29 June 2025

Nearly 200,000 people joined Budapest Pride on Saturday, a record turnout despite a ban by Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán.

"We estimate the number of attendees at 180,000 to 200,000. It is difficult to determine the exact number because never before have so many people come to Pride in Budapest," Viktoria Radvanyi, chair of the event, told AFP.

The parade remained peaceful and police did not intervene. Budapest’s Green mayor, Gergely Karacsony, responded with irony: "Thank you, Viktor Orban, for promoting a more tolerant society," he posted on Facebook.

More than 60 MEPs marched, including Belgians Kathleen Van Brempt of (Vooruit, Hilde Vautmans of Open VLD, Saskia Bricmont of Ecolo, Elio Di Rupo of PS and Yvan Verougstraete of Les Engagés. Several Belgian federal and regional politicians, including from Groen and N-VA, also travelled to Hungary.

Vautmans posted a detailed thread on X explaining why it was important to join the parade. She urged the European Commission to suspend Hungary’s voting rights in the Council over its violations of fundamental rights.

"We as Europe must push back: this cannot and must not happen. This goes against everything Europe stands for. Orbán wants our European money but not our European values? Sorry, but that’s not how it works," she wrote.

Amnesty International held a “Mini Pride” in Brussels last week, urging Hungarian authorities to allow the event. A petition with over 120,000 signatures, including 16,000 from Belgium, was handed to the Budapest police chief on Wednesday.

Mini Pride march in Brussels calls for right to demonstrate in Hungary

A mini Pride march organised by Amnesty International took place on Wednesday in Brussels in response to the ban on Budapest Pride. The NGO, which...

belganewsagency.eu

Orban's offensive against the LGBTQ+ community is not new. The Pride ban builds on the "child protection law" that the Hungarian government voted for in 2021, restricting the exposure of minors to content or images of gender identity or expression that does not correspond to a person's sex at birth, of gender reassignment or of homosexuality.

The European Commission has challenged the law at the European Court of Justice. While a ruling is still pending, the Advocate General recently stated that Hungary was violating Article 2 of the EU Treaty, which enshrines respect for human dignity, equality and human rights. A conviction would be the first of its kind for breaching the EU's core values.

^{Budapest Pride, 28 June 2025. © PHOTO ATTILA KISBENEDEK / AFP}

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