Budapest mayor announces city will organize pride, bypassing Orbán’s law

The city of Budapest will organise the Hungarian LGBTQ community’s pride as a municipal event on the 28th of June, dedicated to freedom, Budapest’s liberal mayor Gergely Karácsony announced on Monday, thereby circumventing a law that allows police to ban LGBTQ marches in Hungary, reports Reuters.
In March, the Hungarian parliament, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party, passed a law banning LGBTQ marches on the grounds of protecting children. The law also allows police to use facial recognition technology to identify people at such events.
The organisers of the Pride parade had announced that the 30th Pride parade in Budapest would go ahead despite the new law, and on Monday the mayor of Budapest said that the city would cooperate with the organisers. The mayor added that since the march would be a municipal event – a celebration of freedom – “no permission from the authorities is necessary”.
In a video posted online, Karácsony said that Budapest’s history was linked to freedom and solidarity.
“There are no first- or second-class citizens in this city. In this city, we know that we can only be free together,” he said. “That is why neither freedom nor love can be banned in this city, and Budapest Pride cannot be banned either.”
Orbán has said that organisers should “not even bother” about holding the parade in Budapest this year.
Over the past 15 years, since Fidesz has been in power, Orbán has appealed to conservative Hungarians who believe that their country is fighting for its Christian identity – against Muslim immigrants and against what they call “gender and LGBT ideology”, which they believe Brussels is imposing on Central European countries.
In 2021, his government banned school materials deemed to promote homosexuality or gender reassignment, claiming that this was done to protect children.
Orbán, who faces challenging elections in 2026, secured constitutional changes in April that stipulate that Hungary only recognises two genders – male and female.
The Hungarian government has not yet commented on Reuters’ questions regarding the pride.