Budapest Pride parade celebrates freedom of assembly after government change

Budapest celebrated its annual Pride parade with tens of thousands marching in defiance of the heat and a history of government opposition. This year's event marked the first Pride parade since the ousting of right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Participants, many of them young, waved small flags and large rainbow banners. While AFP journalists on the ground noted fewer attendees than last year's 200,000-strong demonstration, numbers still surpassed those seen in the years before 2025. The parade proceeded despite temperatures reaching 38 degrees Celsius in the Hungarian capital.

For the LGBTQ community, the change in government offers a glimmer of hope. "The situation for the LGBTQ community is constantly improving, mainly due to the change of government," said 18-year-old Petra Toth, who traveled from southern Hungary with her girlfriend.

Orbán's government had banned the Budapest demonstration last year, citing an anti-LGBTQ law passed in 2021, which was further tightened in 2025. Despite the ban, over 200,000 people participated that year, significantly more than the approximately 35,000 who attended in previous years. The city's Green mayor, Gergely Karácsony, an opponent of Orbán, organized the event, leading to charges against him in January that were later dropped by the prosecution in early June.

Adding to the legal shifts, the European Court of Justice ruled in April that Hungary's anti-LGBTQ laws violated EU fundamental freedoms. However, Hungary's new conservative, pro-European Prime Minister Peter Magyar, who replaced Orbán in May, has yet to offer explicit support for the Pride parade or initiate revisions to the anti-LGBTQ legislation. Magyar, who avoided the topic of LGBTQ rights during his campaign, has recently stated his government will not dictate how people live.

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The situation for the LGBTQ community is constantly improving, mainly due to the change of government