Tens of thousands of people gathered amid a heat wave in the capital of Hungary<\/b> on Saturday to celebrate the 31st annual Budapest Pride<\/b>. <\/p>\n
Specifically, it was the first such LGBTQI+ march since former Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2014who had sought to ban the event\u2014 was ousted from power following the April elections. <\/p>\n
The march began on Saturday afternoon, as temperatures reached at least 38\u00b0C amid an unprecedented heat wave affecting most of Europe. Organizers handed out bottles of water to protesters, while the city\u2019s public water utility turned on fountains along the route. <\/p>\n
Participants set off from the iconic Budapest Opera House and made their way through the city center before crossing the Erzs\u00e9bet Bridge over the Danube River. Members of Hungary\u2019s LGBTQI+ community and a crowd of supporters danced to the music and waved rainbow flags. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nchampions of the world \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08 #budapestpride pic.twitter.com\/uGMzwPvt0i<\/p>\n
\u2014 Sotetszemulany (@sotetszemulany) June 27, 2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Luka Uyi, who was participating in a Pride event for the third time, said she felt the atmosphere at the march was more relaxed now that the Orb\u00e1n government\u2014which implemented numerous anti-anti-LGBTQ+ policies during its 16 years in power\u2014had been defeated. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn the past, there was a lot of tension. But now I see people as somehow happier, and there are also more older people<\/i>,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s Pride march took place a little over a year after Orb\u00e1n\u2019s nationalist-populist government of Orb\u00e1n passed legislation and a constitutional amendment to ban the event, drawing criticism from human rights organizations and politicians across the European Union. <\/p>\n
However, in open defiance of the ban, last year\u2019s Pride took place as scheduled and was the largest in Hungary\u2019s history, with organizers estimating attendance at over 350,000 people. The massive turnout at the march\u2014which the government had insisted for months would no longer be permitted\u2014was seen as a serious blow to Orb\u00e1n\u2019s reputation. <\/p>\n
Orb\u00e1n was decisively defeated in the April elections by a center-right opponent, Prime Minister P\u00e9ter M\u00e1ty\u00e1s and his party, Tisza. Hungary\u2019s new government has not repealed the legislation from the Orb\u00e1n era that outlawed Pride, but the police granted a permit for the event this year and provided security along the route. <\/p>\n
Krist\u00f3f Gy\u00f6rgy, who participated in Pride for the first time after traveling to Budapest from the southern city of Szeged, said he has high hopes that Hungary\u2019s new government will take steps to expand the rights of sexual minorities, which are available in many other European countries. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that there is already a debate in Parliament about whether an orphaned child is better off with a same-sex couple or in an orphanage is a positive sign<\/i>,\u201d he said, referring to the ban during the Orb\u00e1n era on adoption by same-sex couples, as well as on same-sex marriage. <\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, the laws haven\u2019t changed yet, but there are already many signs of hope for our community<\/i>,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
Hungary\u2019s previous government long insisted that Pride, a celebration of LGBTQI+ visibility and the fight for equal rights, constituted a violation of children\u2019s rights to moral and spiritual development \u2014a claim that rights organizations and many experts have rejected. <\/p>\n
In April, the EU\u2019s highest court ruled that the Orb\u00e1n-era legislation from 2021, which banned the availability of LGBTQI+ content to minors, violates EU law and contravenes a fundamental treaty guaranteeing respect for human rights and equality. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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