By Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief reporting from Budapest, Hungary
BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a self-declared Christian, has lashed out at organizers and participants of Saturday’s Budapest Pride march, calling the event “disgusting and shameful.”
Some 200,000 people participated in the largest Pride event in Hungary’s history, despite the government and police banning the rally, according to organizers, and confirmed by drone footage studied by Worthy News.
The event, aimed at promoting LGBTQ+ rights, also turned into the biggest anti-government rally since the increasingly authoritarian Orbán returned to power in 2010.
In comments Sunday via his private online “Fighters Club” group, used by like-minded online activists, Orbán said the march was a spectacle orchestrated by “puppet politicians” carrying out “orders from [the European Union in] Brussels.”
He warned that the Budapest Pride showed “what our country would look like without a national government defending Hungarian sovereignty.”
Orbán acknowledged that turnout at the Pride was large but claimed “it was no match for the 3.7 million people who supported the government’s 2022 ‘gender referendum.’” That referendum, aimed at restricting LGBTQ+ education in schools, was declared invalid due to low voter turnout.
Government-affiliated pollsters reportedly described Pride as a political trap set by Orbán for the opposition ahead of next year’s elections, suggesting the majority of conservative voters oppose such demonstrations.
QUESTIONING RATIONALE
However, independent media outlet Telex questioned why state television did not mention the Pride march in its Sunday morning news broadcasts. Commentators suggest the silence is telling—drone footage and on-the-ground reporting point to a turnout far larger than Orbán had anticipated.
Despite the march being officially banned under the new so-called “child protection” legislation, the event remained peaceful.
Police presence was mainly non-confrontational, and small counter demonstrations, including by perceived far-right groups and conservative Christians, were kept at a distance, a Worthy News reporter observed at the scene.
A man carrying a cross tried to convince participants to move away from the LGBTQ+ lifestyle, with many carrying rainbow colored umbrellas to protect against the sun in soaring temperatures.
Police tried to intervene and redirected the Pride march, which was walking from Budapest city hall, crossing a bridge, to the Technical University.
“Budapest belongs to Europe today,” said Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony, who allowed the march to proceed despite government opposition. “Thank you to everyone who stands with us and believes that a free city can help free others.”
The march took place despite participants risking fines of up to 200,000 Hungarian forints ($588) while organizers face the threat of imprisonment.
WARNING CITIZENS
Several European nations warned citizens of possible police surveillance and interference, and Worthy News witnessed policing cameras probably equipped with advanced face recognition technology.
It was unclear whether journalists also faced fines for participating in the Budapest Pride march. However, numerous European politicians and leaders, including Amsterdam’s Mayor Femke Halsema, came to Budapest to show solidarity.
In an interview with Worthy News, the GreenLeft leader dismissed criticism that she should have stayed in the Netherlands to deal with homophobia there instead of coming to Budapest. “It’s an absurd and laughable false dichotomy,” she stressed, responding to anti-Islam leader Geert Wilders, who had said on social media platform X that Dutch politicians should stay home while LGBTQ+ people are still attacked in Amsterdam.
“We fight homophobia at home every day. But today, here in Hungary, I also send a message to haters — whether in Amsterdam or Budapest,” Halsema told Worthy News.
Mayor Halsema, who marched alongside Karácsony, stated: “I told him and the international queer community that Amsterdam stands by them in the fight for freedom — to be who you are and love who you love. His courage under pressure is impressive.”
Yet while people like Halsema can leave Hungary easily, other participants expressed anxiety over potential repercussions. Nóra (32), a Hungarian marcher, said she feared facial recognition technology and wore a disguise. “My friends even joked I should wear a fake mustache,” she told Worthy News. “I was scared for my job, but I still came, because freedom matters.
Another marcher, a 27-year-old student, said: “If we decide not to come, we give the government all the power.”
FLEEING HUNGARY
Maximilian Von Fuchs (29), who fled Hungary for Austria, fearing discrimination as a gay man, said: “Orbán controls nearly all media. People have been brainwashed over the past decade. But seeing so many people from the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria on the train to Budapest Pride gave me hope.”
There was also a small group of pro-Palestine activists among the Pride crowd, including Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate activist-turned anti-Israel protester. She said on the social media platform Instagram that “banning the Budapest Pride was a new fascist attack on human rights. But you can not ban love.”
Activists like her walked away when Worthy News tried to ask whether Palestinians support the Budapest Pride and when they would hold the first Pride in Gaza or the West Bank, also known as Judaea and Samaria.
Unlike in Israel, where Pride marches are held in Tel Aviv, same-sex sexual activity is criminalized in Gaza, where it carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment. Additionally, in the Palestinian Territories, there are no laws that specifically protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination.
Budapest police said that while they had banned the rally, only two of the 36 people searched were detained, including one man on drug charges and a woman for public disturbance, but added it had been a complicated operation.
“It costs hundreds of millions of forints (millions of euros). There’s money for this, but not for trams, not for Budapest’s public transport company BKV, or for solving the city’s traffic problems,” added government spokesperson Zoltán Kovács.
Critics, including Amsterdam Mayor Halsema, argue that Budapest receives barely any funding from Prime Minister Orbán’s central government’s budget— a tactic, they say, is used to pressure and undermine his political opponents.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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