On 18 March 2025, the Hungarian Parliament voted in favor of a bill which bans holding or attending assemblies that violate the law on the protection of children, which forbids promoting or displaying homosexuality or gender change to persons under the age of 18, therefore banning Pride parades. Participants may receive a fine ranging from 6,500 forints (€16) to 200,000 forints (€500), while organizers can face up to one year in prison. The bill also authorizes police to use facial recognition systems to identify participants.
Protests broke out in multiple Hungarian and Western European cities, with hundreds or thousands of protestors attending. Independent MP Ákos Hadházy organized a protest every week between 25 March and 19 July 2025.
The 2025 Budapest Pride was held on 28 June despite the police banning it, and between 100,000 and 200,000 people were present, many of whom were first-timers who attended not only in support of sexual minorities' rights, but also for the country's democratic future. This parade became Hungary's largest anti-government demonstration in years, with the organizers saying participants had arrived from 30 different countries. The police stated that they will not start procedures against participants. Another Pride march was held on 4 October with seven to eight thousand attendees in Pécs, the only rural city that holds an annual Pride parade.
Background
On 15 June 2021, a law prohibiting promoting or portraying homosexuality or sex reassignment to minors and limiting sexual education in schools was passed by the Hungarian Parliament. Referred to in English as the Hungarian anti-LGBTQ law, the bill sparked outrage both nationally and internationally for equating LGBTQ people with pedophiles. One of the country's biggest book distributors, Líra, was fined 12 million forints (€32,000) for violating the law which requires books dealing with LGBTQ issues in any form to be wrapped in transparent film and not be included in the section of books intended for adolescents.
In March 2025, Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán announced in his annual State of the Nation address in February that the constitution will state that a person is either a man or a woman, and said "I advise the organizers of Pride not to bother preparing for this year's parade. It would be a waste of money and time."
The far-right party Our Homeland Movement called for a ban on LGBTQ pride marches on multiple occasions before.
Amendments to the law
On 17 March, an amendment to the law on assembly was submitted, which makes it an infraction punishable by fines ranging from 6,500 forints (€16) to 200,000 forints (€500) to hold or attend an assembly that violates the prohibition set out in the law on the protection of children, which forbids promoting or displaying homosexuality and gender change to persons under the age of 18. The amendment also states that the money collected from fines must be used for child protection purposes, and allows the police to use facial recognition systems in order to identify the participants. Organizers face punishments of up to one-year imprisonment. The amendment enjoyed special procedure, so that the proposal was debated on, and the final vote was held on the next day.
On 18 March, the Parliament voted in favor of the amendment by 136 votes in favor and 27 votes against. During the vote, Momentum Movement MPs and Ákos Hadházy (independent) lit smoke bombs, played the Soviet national anthem, and threw pictures of Viktor Orbán and Vladimir Putin kissing. The opposition MPs chanted "We won't allow it!" Gábor Bányai, an MP who survived COVID-19, received emergency medical care. President of Hungary Tamás Sulyok signed it into law on the same day. The MPs who disrupted the vote later received fines totaling up to 82 million forints (€200,000) and were banned from 10 sessions of the Parliament by Speaker of the National Assembly László Kövér; Hadházy's fine of 12 million forints (€30,000) was paid off by donations within two days. They appealed the decision, and the Parliament confirmed it. This was the first time since the fall of communism that an MP was banned from Parliament. It is the first ban on a Pride march in an EU nation.
On 14 April, the Parliament voted 140–21 to accept the fifteenth amendment to the constitution, which states – among other things – "Every child has the right to protection and care for their adequate physical, mental and moral development. This right takes precedence over all other fundamental rights, with the exception of the right to life", and that a person is either a man or a woman. According to the Chief of Staff, Gergely Gulyás, this is justified by common sense, as "people with families do not usually go near Pride". Momentum organized a protest to Kossuth Square unsuccessfully attempting to block the MPs from getting into the Parliament by blocking the entrance of the Parliament's parking garage, and they disturbed the vote in the Parliament with air horns. The president signed the amendment on the same day.
Reactions Mayor of Budapest Gergely Karácsony said that Budapest Pride will be held and it "could be bigger than ever". He gave a speech at the 2025 Vienna Pride, where he said "if Pride can be banned in an EU member state, then no EU citizen is safe". Alexandra Szentkirályi, leader of the Fidesz fraction of the General Assembly of Budapest, was also at Vienna Pride, and she posted that it was "brutal" and also shared pictures of naked men that were there. Then–Prime Minister Orbán commented: "Now that is what we do not want in our country!"
The organizers of Budapest Pride compared this amendment to fascism, and stated that they were still planning to hold the 2025 Pride march despite the ban.
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a non-governmental human rights organization, stated that the amendment violates several fundamental rights, especially the right to freedom of assembly, the prohibition of discrimination, and the right to the protection of personal data. Co-chair of the committee, András Kádár, said that there is no sociological data or scientific evidence to suggest that the mention of being gay or the public discussion of the sexual minorities' position in society has a negative impact on children. Tamás Dombos, a project coordinator at Háttér Society, a Hungarian LGBTQ rights group, said that this was a tactic to distract voters from more important issues, and that facial recognition could be used against other protests the government chooses to deem unlawful.
Michael O'Flaherty, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe wrote "I call on the President of Hungary to veto the law", and he asked László Kövér, speaker of the National Assembly, to amend the bill. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen called upon the Hungarian authorities to allow Budapest Pride. Orbán replied that they should stay out of the nation's affairs.
Future Prime Minister Péter Magyar, then leader of the largest opposition party Tisza Party, said that the government did this to divert attention from millions of Hungarians living in severe living crisis, and that if they get elected, they will protect the right of assembly. Many have criticized Magyar for not speaking up more firmly. Magyar said that he will not attend, but he called upon the police to protect the Hungarian people even if it means standing up against the arbitrariness of power.
Momentum Movement pledged to create a fund with which the fines could be paid off.
Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, called on the Hungarian authorities to repeal this and all other laws that discriminate against LGBTQ people.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez as well as Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Harris, Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen and German EU Affairs Minister Anna Lührmann, on their respective X accounts, have all opposed the bill.
Thirty-three embassies have issued a joint statement in support of LGBTQ people's rights. Twenty EU countries have also made a similar joint statement. Seventy-one MEPs planned on attending the 2025 Budapest Pride despite the ban.
Protests and demonstrations Momentum Movement organized a protest to Kossuth Square, in front of the Parliament, on 18 March at 17:00 (CET). After speeches were made by leaders of Momentum and , and independent MP Ákos Hadházy, the crowd moved to the Margaret Bridge to block it. They got to Jászai Mari Square, but could not get on the bridge due to the police blockade. The crowd grew larger by another protest starting from Liberty Square. Three men were arrested. The crowd dispersed at around 22:30, when the police started to identify people who stayed there.
On 19 March, a protest was held in Pécs by Amnesty International. More than 200 people attended, including Momentum.
Vienna Pride organized a protest in the Austrian capital on 20 March to express their solidarity toward the Hungarian Pride community. Hundreds of people attended and speeches were made by politicians from multiple Austrian parties. They also invited Hungarians to the 2025 Vienna Pride. Similar protests were held in front of the Hungarian consulate in Barcelona on 22 March with around a hundred people attending, and in Paris on 23 March with 50–100 people attending.
Hadházy announced another protest to the Elisabeth Bridge taking place on 25 March at 17:00. The police rejected their request for permission to hold this protest at that place due to it disrupting traffic, instead they allowed it on the . The Curia later found that the reasoning was not enough to reject the request. Hadházy then announced that the protest will be held on the Ferenciek tere. At the protest, thousands of protestors gathered. Multiple speeches were made, then the protestors blocked the Elisabeth Bridge, Liberty Bridge, Petőfi Bridge, and Margaret Bridge. At 23:30, the police started to identify 289 of those who remained, two of them resisted.
On 29 March, a protest was held in Szeged. After speeches have been made, the 100–150 protestors blocked the Belvárosi Bridge. A protestor was fined 39,000 forints (€95) for stepping off the sidewalk, however, the police did not identify him at the scene, instead, he was identified via publicly available videos of the protest. An employee of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ) said that the police probably used facial recognition systems to identify him, even though the amendment that would allow this only entered into force later, on 15 April.
Another protest was announced by Hadházy to take place on 1 April at 17:00 (CEST) to the Elisabeth Bridge. After speeches have been made, the crowd made up of thousands went to block the Liberty Bridge, the Petőfi Bridge, and the Margaret Bridge. The policed used physical coercion to move protestors from the road to the sidewalk. At 20:30, the police started to push the crowd on the Liberty Bridge towards Pest, but at 21:00, the police blockade suddenly left from the bridge. At 22:45, the police started to identify those who remained on the Liberty Bridge.