Around 50,000 people marched through central Budapest on Saturday, 27 June, according to organizers, as the Hungarian capital hosted its 31st Pride parade amid one of the most intense heatwaves sweeping across Europe, with temperatures reaching around 40°C during the march.
The first Budapest Pride since former prime minister Viktor Orbán’s government lost power in April had a more celebratory atmosphere than last year’s march, which became a mass demonstration against an attempted ban. Reporters described dancing, music, and a relaxed crowd, while organizers distributed water and the city opened public fountains. Police said the parade proceeded peacefully, although three people were taken into custody.
Closing the march, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony delivered a speech in which he called for marriage equality for same-sex couples in Hungary. ‘I would like to be the first to officiate the first same-sex wedding in Budapest, and I do not want to wait long,’ he added.
Same-sex couples can enter into registered partnerships in Hungary, but marriage remains reserved for a man and a woman. Karácsony’s pledge therefore shifted the focus of the event’s demands from freedom of assembly, which was largely characterized last year’s Budapest Pride, to a challenge to the country’s constitutional definition of marriage.
The wording closely resembled that used by the progressive Mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski. During his 2018 election campaign, Trzaskowski said: ‘I wish I could become the first mayor of Warsaw to officiate a same-sex marriage,’ acknowledging that Polish law would first have to change. At the time, the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party—a close ally of Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz—governed Poland and strongly opposed same-sex marriage, as well as LGBTQ and gender issues.
PiS was ousted after eight years in a manner very similar to Fidesz and Orbán, by now-Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his Civic Coalition (KO), a broad electoral alliance of left-wing, progressive, and centre-right parties formed with the sole objective of defeating PiS. Tusk’s victory is widely regarded as the blueprint for how Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar defeated Orbán in 2026. Tusk is also one of Magyar’s closest allies in Europe.
‘Eight years after Trzaskowski’s 2018 speech, Warsaw moved part of the way towards marriage equality’
Eight years after Trzaskowski’s 2018 speech, Warsaw moved part of the way towards marriage equality. On 14 May, the city entered into Poland’s civil register the German marriage certificate of Jakub Cupriak-Trojan and Mateusz Trojan, who married in Berlin in 2018. It was Poland’s first official registration of a same-sex marriage concluded abroad.
The action followed a November 2025 judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and a subsequent ruling by Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court. The CJEU held that member states must recognize a same-sex marriage lawfully concluded elsewhere in the bloc when necessary to protect free-movement and family-life rights. It did not require Poland to legalize same-sex marriage domestically.
Trzaskowski nevertheless pledged that Warsaw would continue registering foreign same-sex marriages. The case illustrates how EU judgments and supportive municipal authorities can expand legal recognition before national legislatures introduce marriage equality. Karácsony’s proposal goes further: he wants Budapest City Hall not merely to recognize a foreign union, but eventually to officiate one.
At present, the political atmosphere in Hungary appears increasingly favourable towards such efforts. A recent Medián survey commissioned by LGBT advocacy organization Háttér Társaság reported that 68 per cent of respondents would extend marriage and adoption rights to same-sex couples, while 71 per cent supported access.
The results were, however, sharply divided along party lines. Among voters of the governing Tisza Party, 79 per cent favoured repealing the restrictions. Among Fidesz voters, only 8 per cent favoured repeal. Among supporters of the hard-right Our Homeland (Mi Hazánk) party, 15 per cent favoured repeal, while 56 per cent wanted the existing measures to be retained.
Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s government has so far distinguished between permitting Pride and endorsing its wider programme. Police authorized this year’s march, and Magyar said: ‘The situation is completely clear: a gathering that has been notified can be held. Nobody wants to prevent it.’ Interior Minister Gábor Pósfai had earlier said Pride should be possible, while noting that amending the legislation was not among the government’s first priorities.
‘Organizers and marchers believed the April election had brought them closer to their goals, although much remained to be done’
That marks a clear departure from Orbán, whose government attempted to ban the 2025 march and restricted legal gender recognition, adoption, and LGBT material accessible to minors under the so-called 2021 Child Protection Act. Yet most of those provisions remain in force, and Magyar has urged patience when questioned about their repeal.
Speaking to the media during the march, Pride participants also acknowledged that, only weeks after the change of government, same-sex marriage and adoption were unlikely to rank among the Tisza administration’s immediate priorities. Many said they were prepared to give Péter Magyar time to address the economy, public services, anti-corruption measures, and the institutional legacy of the Orbán era.
That patience was nevertheless conditional. A report by Kontroll, an outlet owned by the brother of Prime Minister Magyar, summarized the prevailing view as ‘major progress has been made, but it is not enough’, while Euronews Hungary found that organizers and marchers believed the April election had brought them closer to their goals, although much remained to be done. Organizer and LGBT activist Kristóf Steiner said it was too early to judge the new government but rejected the argument that LGBT rights could be postponed because ‘there are more important issues’, insisting that fundamental rights could not be ranked against one another.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen encouraged those expectations. ‘I am so glad that the LGBTIQ+ community in Hungary can finally march without fear,’ she wrote, concluding: ‘Today, all Europe is büszke,’ she wrote the word ‘pride’ in Hungarian.
Her remarks underlined the contest now taking shape in Hungary. With Orbán’s departure after 16 years in power, the political pathway towards implementing more progressive legislation on the issue has largely been cleared. Prime Minister Péter Magyar has already announced that the Tisza government intends to conclude its four-year mandate by adopting an entirely new Constitution, opening the possibility of removing the current constitutional provision defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Whether the government has the political will to do so, however, remains unclear. The pressure, nevertheless, is already mounting on Magyar from both the European Union and the significant progressive wing of his party’s electorate.
Related articles:
At a time when public debate is increasingly polarized and superficial, Hungarian Conservative remains committed to depth, intellectual honesty, and independent conservative thought.
Producing high-quality journalism requires resources. Your contribution helps us expand our coverage, reach new audiences, and keep our content accessible.
Please consider supporting our mission.