Banned or not, soon a Pride will take to the streets of Budapest. Perhaps the largest demonstration for LGBTQ rights ever in the Hungarian capital, with more than 30,000 people. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's plan to make the LGBTQ community in Hungary invisible seems to have completely failed. Have many Hungarians had enough of their authoritarian prime minister after 15 years?
Officially, Pride in Budapest is banned today. After a controversial constitutional amendment by the Orbán government in March, the rights of the Hungarian LGBTQ community have been further restricted. According to the radical right-wing government, to protect the country's younger children from"propaganda". A controversial explanation that Viktor Orbán has been using for years now.
Legal loophole
For a moment, it seemed as if the 30th edition of Pride in Budapest would never happen. Until suddenly there was a loophole. The mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony, would simply organize Pride himself. The annual parade was no longer a demonstration, but a municipal event. The strict constitutional amendment no longer seemed to apply.
On paper it may seem brilliant, but in reality it has been causing legal uncertainty for weeks. “It is the most exciting soap opera in years,” we hear cynically when we address someone on the terrace of an LGBTQ café in the centre of Budapest. The ideal situation for Prime Minister Orbán, who lives for this kind of culture war against the left-liberal elite, especially if the EU also gets involved in the conflict. Because Brussels has been Viktor Orbán's favourite opponent for years.
Democracy is crumbling
When Orbán wins the elections in 1998 with his party Fidesz, he is still a classic centre-right politician and good friends with other Christian democratic parties in Europe. He is prime minister for 4 years and then moves back to the opposition. But in 2010 Viktor Orbán is back. And how.
His Fidesz party gets more than 50 percent and through a pact with another right-wing party, Orbán even has a two-thirds majority in parliament. The government can thus amend the constitution without much difficulty, immediately followed by controversial reforms. The power of the Supreme Court is limited and new electoral laws are introduced. Democracy is crumbling step by step.
But Orbán continues to win the elections. The harsh words about migrants or the criticism of the EU score with a large part of the Hungarian voters. And the LGBTQ community also gets a hard blow in the culture war of Viktor Orbán. Sexual orientation is suddenly a dangerous ideology that poses a threat to the conservative values of Hungary.
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Watch the Terzake report on the Hungarian LGBTQ community here:
In 2021, the Hungarian parliament passes a ‘child protection law’. Anyone under the age of 18 will no longer be allowed to come into contact with texts or images that refer to non-traditional relationships or gender reassignment. Popular books with a homosexual character will suddenly have to be wrapped in plastic foil in stores. Stores located near a school will even have to remove the books from their shelves.
Orbán is nervous
And since this year, Pride has also been banned by the Hungarian government. A new attack on the LGBTQ community, but according to many political scientists it is mainly a campaign strategy of a nervous Orbán. Because for the first time in a long time, a politician in Hungary seems capable of dethroning Prime Minister Orbán after 15 years.
Péter Magyar, a former party member who left Fidesz because of dissatisfaction with the government's policy. Also a conservative politician, but more moderate. And that scores well with many voters. Magyar is currently neck and neck in the polls. So Orbán had to intervene. By banning Pride, he not only wanted to make the LGBTQ community invisible, but also to entrap his main political opponent.
If Magyar were to defend Pride, he could lose the large group of conservative voters in the countryside. But Orbán's tactics are not working. Magyar sees through the game and has remained conspicuously silent on the subject in recent months. This makes more and more Hungarians believe that change is really possible.
And so Pride will soon simply take to the streets of Budapest. Some participants are afraid, but the sense of militancy is greater. Suddenly it is about much more than just LGBTQ rights, people are also simply marching to defend freedom of expression. It could even become the biggest Pride ever. And many people we speak to here are already looking forward to the 2026 elections. From drag queen Valerie Divine to the spirited owner of a bookshop: “I want democracy to be able to return.”
