Hungary’s top court said no on rainbow march, Budapest Pride accepting police decision – here’s Mayor Karácsony’s reaction
The police decision to ban a march for the equality of LGBTQ people, planned by four organisations to be held in Budapest on June 28, was lawful, the Hungarian Supreme Court said in a ruling rejecting the organisers’ claim against the decision on Friday.
30th Budapest Pride Parade in danger
The demonstration was announced to commemorate the fifth anniversary of a law that “stripped transgender people from the right to gender change and the related name change,” the Kuria said in a statement on Friday. The demonstration aimed to stand up for the rights of transgender and LGBTQ people, and to raise awareness “of the impact of discriminative legislation in the past 5 years, especially regarding the upcoming 30th Pride Parade and the government’s hate-mongering against the LGBTQ community.”
The Kúria rejected the police’s claim that earlier Pride marches would have constituted a “precedent” for this year’s event and said there was no direct evidence “that the venue, should it be approved by the authorities, would serve as a de facto venue of the 30th Budapest Pride.”
Constitutional Court, Court of Justice of the European Union can be next
At the same time, the court upheld the police’s conclusion that the event aimed to stand up for the right of transgender people to change their gender and name, “and the Kúria found that the announced goal of the gathering might violate the bans enshrined in the assembly and the child protection laws,” the decision said. The organisers have failed to allay those concerns at talks with the authorities, it added.
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee, Háttér, the Szivárvány Misszió Foundation and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union also proposed to turn to the Constitutional Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union over the matter. The Kúria rejected that proposal too, saying that the 3-day deadline set in the Hungarian law on the right to assembly did not allow for such action to be completed.
According to the police decision, the event was organised by Amnesty International Hungary, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, the Hatter Society and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union.
In a joint statement after the ruling, the four NGOs said: “According to the Kúria, the right to a peaceful assembly for the equal rights of sexual and gender minorities cannot be exercised in Hungary. In June 2025, Hungary seems to allow the 64 Counties Youth Movement and the Our Homeland [parties] to spread their discriminative views in public spaces with no regard to human dignity, but it is forbidden to stand up for equality and human dignity on the same day.”
They pledged to continue to fight for the “restoration of the peaceful right to assembly” with all the means at their disposal. The organisers also said that the procedure did not impact the organisation of the Budapest Pride, also planned for June 28.
Mayor Karácsony’s reaction
Gergely Karácsony reacted to the developments in a short Facebook video, saying that the Municipal Council and its partners will organise Budapest Pride but cannot support it financially due to the drained state of the city’s budget. Therefore, he launched a fundraising campaign to support the event.
Read more about LGBTQ people in Hungary HERE.
Featured image: depositphotos.com
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