Police will not initiate proceedings against Budapest Pride participants

The Hungarian police will not initiate proceedings against those who participated in this year's Pride march, they have announced on Monday on Police.hu.

As they write: On June 16, 2025, a private individual submitted a request for a march planned to be held in Budapest on June 28, 2025. During the legal procedure, the Budapest Police Headquarters contacted the Budapest Municipal Government, which has jurisdiction over the public space affected by the gathering, and received a response stating that a municipal event would be held at the location and time specified in the notification.

The Budapest Police Headquarters had banned the event organized by the Budapest Municipal Government, called “Budapest Pride,” because there was reason to believe that the goal with it was to hold a gathering which is prohibited by the law on public gatherings. As per the law in question, the police forwarded said decision to the organizers, who were thus informed that the gathering was unlawful. Since the organizers did not challenge the decision in court, it became final.

The organizers did not initiate any consultation with the authorities and, although they were aware of the prohibition, they continued to communicate in contradiction to it, encouraging people to attend the meeting and claiming that it was not illegal. The contradictory statements and the role taken on by the local government may have caused a lack of clarity among many regarding the legal interpretation, leading them to assume that participation in the event was in compliance with the legal norms in force.

In view of the above, the police will not be initiating any proceedings against those who attended the march, the statement concludes.

We had previously sent several letters to the police asking whether they would be taking action against the participants or the organizers of Pride, but the only answer we received was a vague one stating that “the Budapest Police Headquarters is acting in accordance with the applicable laws and is investigating the events that took place at last Saturday's gathering.”

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán first spoke about his goal of banning Pride in his annual State of the Nation address in February, telling organizers that they should not bother organizing this year's event.

Then in the spring, in line with his wishes, parliament amended the constitution to state that among fundamental rights, children's right to healthy development comes before the right to assembly, and the law on assembly was modified accordinglyprohibiting the organizing of gatherings which violate the provisions of the law officially called the Child Protection Act, known as the anti-LGBTQ law adopted in 2021.

In the end, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony announced that the Pride parade would be held as an event of the municipality, but the police banned it nevertheless. Justice Minister Bence Tuzson then threatened the organizers with imprisonment and the participants with fines .

Despite this, the event went ahead as planned and it became the biggest Pride parade ever held in the Hungarian capital.