Orban Warns Of Arrests For Attending Budapest Pride

Reuters reports:

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday there would be “legal consequences” for organising or attending a Budapest Pride march in violation of a police ban on the event planned for this weekend.

Hungary’s parliament, in which Orban’s right-wing Fidesz Party has a big majority, passed legislation in March that created a legal basis for police to ban LGBTQ marches, on the grounds that protecting children would supersede the right to assemble. It also lets police use facial recognition cameras to identify people who attend and impose fines.

He said police could disperse a banned event but Hungary was a “civilised country” and the task for police was to convince people to follow the law. “We are in the world not to make each others’ lives more difficult but easier, this is the essence of Christianity,” he said.

France24 reports:

Hungary has warned EU ambassadors and their staff not to attend Saturday’s Pride march in Budapest, saying that police had banned the gathering. March organisers meanwhile sent their own letter, insisting that police had no authority to ban the procession and vowing it will go ahead as planned.

“The legal situation is clear: the Pride parade is a legally banned assembly… those who take part in an event prohibited by the authorities commit an infraction,” said the letter signed by Justice Minister Bence Tuzson and dated Tuesday.

“Kindly ensure that your co-workers and colleagues are duly informed of these facts, in order to maintain clarity,” it added. Pride organisers, in turn, sent a letter to embassies insisting the police had no right to ban the event – organised by the city council – and that the march is “neither banned nor unlawful”.

Politico Europe reports:

A who’s who of European politicians is descending on Budapest in a battle of wills with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, seeking to defy his government’s ban on Saturday’s Pride parade.

After weeks of silence, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen finally backed the celebrations in a video statement on Wednesday. “I call on the Hungarian authorities to allow the Budapest Pride to go ahead,” she said. “To the LGBTIQ+ community in Hungary and beyond: I will always be your ally.”

Orbán immediately hit back on social media and urged von der Leyen “to refrain from interfering in the law enforcement affairs of member states.

There’s more at all links above.

I call on the Hungarian authorities to allow the Budapest Pride to go ahead.

Without fear of any criminal or administrative sanctions against the organisers or participants.

To the LGBTIQ+ community in Hungary and beyond:

I will always be your ally. pic.twitter.com/Wz0GBFRz8C

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) June 25, 2025

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