Budapest Pride Parade Was Bigger Than Ever, Despite Orban's BanPrime Minister Viktor Orban's party enacted the ban, but Budapest's mayor allowed the event to go on. The police sat on the sidelines.
Link to Full ArticleThe New York Times - Andrew Higgins, Reporting from Budapest
June 28, 2025 Updated 2:01 p.m. ET
A government ban on Hungary's annual Pride parade backfired on Saturday when more than 100,000 people marched through the Hungarian capital, far more than have taken part in previous such events.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday warned people to stay away from the banned parade, threatening "clear legal consequences". Government warnings, however, only turned ... a low-key event attended by a few thousand L.G.B.T.Q. activists and their friends into a mass rally against Mr. Orban's government.
To prevent Mr. Orban's government from derailing this year's Pride parade, an annual fixture since 1995, Budapest's mayor, Gergely Karacsony, recast it as a municipal event celebrating Hungary's recovery of full freedom when Soviet troops pulled out in June 1991. He allowed it to go ahead, ...
... this year's march drew more than 70 members of the European Parliament and scores of politicians from across Europe, including Sophie Rohonyi, the president of Defi, a liberal Belgian party.
Ms. Rohonyi said she came to Budapest to "show Mr. Orban that just because he is elected does not mean that he can do whatever he wants." The right of assembly, she added, cannot be "thrown away just because a prime minister wants to ban Pride."-----------------------------
Check out the photo of thousands of protestors blocking the bridge.
