BUDAPEST — The rainbow flags flew high and unblocked. More than 10,000 people marched through Budapest on Saturday in the city’s first Pride parade since Viktor Orban lost power. The heat was record-breaking.
The political climate, for once, was not. Last year, Orban’s government tried to ban the march outright.
That attempt turned the 2024 Pride into a mass anti-government protest, drawing tens of thousands. This year, the state simply got out of the way. Orban’s defeat in April to Peter Magyar’s centre-right Tisza party lifted the threat of obstruction.
The difference was visible along the route, where huge rainbow and European Union flags unfurled without police interference. Fanni Fajth, an 18-year-old student, described the mood as markedly more optimistic.
“Everyone is just so much more uplifted,” she said. Her hopes are concrete: equal rights for adoption and marriage. “I think it would be wonderful if we just had equal rights finally after all these years.” Orban had spent years casting himself as a defender of Christian values against Western liberalism.
His government passed laws ending legal gender change on personal documents. It halted adoption by same-sex couples. It banned materials in schools that were seen as promoting homosexuality or gender transition.
Brussels and human rights groups condemned those policies sharply. Now the stakes are plain.
Magyar, a conservative, has asked for patience when asked about reversing those laws. The marchers Saturday were not in a patient mood. They carried EU flags for a reason: the bloc’s institutions had been the primary external pressure on Orban’s policies.
With Orban gone, the question is whether Magyar will move quickly or slowly. Mate Tarnai, a 51-year-old chemist, felt the change personally.
“The biggest change is actually the change in politics in the country,” he said. “We feel more freedom personally as well, and also the atmosphere in the country is much more relaxed than last year.” Tarnai said he hoped for equal rights from Magyar’s government. The contrast with 2024 could not be starker.
That march was a political battleground, a mass demonstration against a government that had weaponized anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment. This year’s was a celebration, but a guarded one. The laws Orban passed remain on the books.
The ban on same-sex adoption is still law. The ban on gender change is still law.
The school censorship rules are still law. Magyar has not committed to repealing them. His centre-right party won on a platform of anti-corruption and democratic restoration, not specifically on LGBTQ+ rights.
The marchers know this. They cheered the change in government, but they also know that change does not automatically mean equality.
Fajth, the student, was clear about what she wants. Adoption rights. Marriage rights.
The same legal standing as any other Hungarian citizen. Those are the concrete stakes. Not abstract promises.
Not patience. Not gradual progress.
The European Union flags at the march were a reminder of the external dimension. Orban’s policies had made Hungary a pariah in Brussels. Magyar has signaled a desire to repair relations with the EU.
Whether that repair includes rolling back Orban’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws is a test of how serious that repair will be. For now, the marchers took the victory they had.
A Pride march that the state did not try to stop. A government that did not send police to block the route. A political atmosphere that was, as Tarnai put it, “much more relaxed.” But relaxed is not equal.
And the laws remain. Saturday’s march was a marker. It showed what is possible when the state steps back.
It also showed how much remains to be done. The rainbow flags flew.
The EU flags flew. The heat was brutal. The hope was real, but it was hope with an expiration date.
Magyar has asked for patience. The marchers have given it, for now.
