Budapest Pride turns into mass act of defiance against Orban

Hundreds of thousands of people marched through Budapest on Saturday, joining the city’s Pride parade in one of the biggest displays of public defiance in Hungary during Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s 15-year rule.

Hungarians and visitors from across Europe united in solidarity with the LGBTQ community, which has frequently been the target of the nationalist leader’s policies. They flouted a government ban on the event that drew many first-time participants.

“I have never been to Pride but I came precisely because the government wanted to ban this event,” said Istvan, a 72-year-old pensioner, who declined to give his last name. “This is about freedom. It’s about tolerance of differences that no authority can erase.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Bernadett Nagy, a 21 year-old student, overlooking Elizabeth Bridge — one of the capital’s widest — as paraders crossed for more than an hour with no end in sight.

Budapest’s opposition mayor, Gergely Karacsony, co-organized the Hungarian capital’s 30th iteration of the parade under the banner of celebrating freedom in a nation increasingly at odds with the European Union over democratic backsliding.

Orban’s lawmakers changed the constitution earlier this year to be able to ban the event in what critics say was an attempt to ramp up his culture war and reverse his fading political fortunes before elections next year.

Organizers and participants will face legal consequences, most likely fines, Orban said on Friday, adding that police wouldn’t use force to break up the march. The embassies of France, Germany and the U.K. were among 33 to sign a joint statement supporting the right to stage the parade. Diplomats, lawmakers and government officials from around Europe were expected to take part.

“In Europe, marching for your rights is a fundamental freedom,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement late Wednesday, calling on Hungarian authorities to allow people to take part “without fear of any criminal or administrative sanctions.”

Potential fines

Police blocked the event under a law passed in April by lawmakers aligned with Orban that cast LGBTQ-themed public gatherings as potential threats to children. A constitutional amendment has since empowered authorities to restrict such events, even at the expense of curtailing freedom of assembly.

While officials denied a permit for the parade, they allowed a far-right political party to hold a demonstration along a similar route. Nationalist groups went on to blockade Liberty Bridge, forcing Pride participants to alter their route and cross the Danube river via a different bridge.

Those attending a banned event face potential fines ranging from 6,500 forint ($19) to as much as 200,000 forint, human rights group the Hungarian Helsinki Committee said before the parade.

Hungary’s supreme court has taken a critical stance against excessive police restrictions on public assemblies. On Friday, the court annulled — for a second time — a police ban on an LGBTQ equality march, a separate event scheduled to coincide with Saturday’s Pride celebrations.

Politically, Orban’s inability to stop Pride from going ahead risks projecting weakness at a time when his Fidesz party is trailing in the polls. However, a heavy-handed police response could also deepen public dissatisfaction and further undermine his support.

“Order must always be established and then it must be kept,” Orban told graduating police cadets on Saturday, without making a specific reference to Pride.

Meanwhile, cracks are beginning to show within Fidesz itself. Earlier this month, internal divisions forced a delay in a parliamentary vote that sought to suppress independent civil society and media organizations by threatening to cut their funding.

One notable absentee from the parade is Peter Magyar, a former Orban ally whose newly formed Tisza party has surged ahead of Fidesz in polling. A Median survey published on June 18 showed Tisza leading Fidesz by 15 points — up from a nine-point margin in March — ahead of elections expected in April.

Magyar has centered his messaging on addressing Hungary’s cost-of-living crisis and tackling entrenched corruption. He has described the banning of Pride as a “political trap” designed to distract voters and rally conservatives against his surging movement.

In a Facebook post on Saturday, Magyar urged the government to stop inciting hatred and called for a Hungary that embraces people “regardless of the family they come from, what they believe in, or who they love.”