The governments of 20 European Union countries on Tuesday said they are “alarmed” over Hungary’s worsening anti-LGBTQ crackdown.
Hungarian lawmakers in March passed a bill that bans Pride events and allow authorities to use facial recognition technology to identify those who participate in them. MPs last month amended the Hungarian constitution to ban public LGBTQ events.
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee on Tuesday said police in Budapest, the Hungarian capital, have banned an LGBTQ rights march that was scheduled to have taken place on June 1. The Budapest-based human rights NGO in a press release said authorities cited the law that bans Pride events and other demonstrations “displaying homosexuality.”
Budapest Pride is scheduled to take place on June 28. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee and other groups, including the Háttér Society, a Hungarian LGBTQ rights organization, said they will challenge the ban.
“We are deeply concerned by recent legislative and constitutional amendments infringing on the fundamental rights of LGBTIQ+ persons which were adopted by the Hungarian parliament on March 18 and April 14, 2025, following other anti-LGBTIQ+ legislation already introduced in previous years,” reads a declaration that the Austrian, Belgian, Cypriot, Czech, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Icelandic, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Maltese, Dutch, Portuguese, Slovenian, Spanish, and Swedish governments issued.
“Under the pretext of child protection, these legislative amendments allow fines to be imposed on participants and organizers of events, such as the annual Pride celebrations,” it adds. “The amendments also allow for facial recognition software to be used at such events, and for banning such events. We are concerned by the implications of these measures on freedom of expression, the right to peaceful assembly, and the right to privacy.”
The governments stress they are “highly alarmed by these developments which run contrary to the fundamental values of human dignity, freedom, equality and respect for human rights, as laid down in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union.”
“Respecting and protecting the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all people, including LGBTIQ+ persons, is inherent in being part of the European family. This is our responsibility and shared commitment of the member states and the European institutions,” says the declaration.
“We therefore call upon Hungary to revise these measures, to ensure the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all its citizens are respected and protected, thus complying with its international obligations,” it adds.