Why the Pride turned into a disaster for Orbán and whether he could lose power in Hungary

"Pride turned into a funeral march for Orbán’s regime." That was the headline of an editorial in HVG, one of Hungary’s key independent outlets, assessing last weekend’s events.

This assessment is somewhat simplistic. There is still no guarantee that Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party will lose the elections. But it’s undeniable that Orbán has taken a big step toward defeat.

More than 100,000 people took to the streets – an incredible number for a minority rights march. But most had other motivations. They marched not only for Pride values, but rather to show Orbán he is losing his grip on power.

The government understands this is a serious crisis.

Read more about what really happened in Budapest in the article by Sergiy Sydorenko, European Pravda's editor: Orbán lost to 'gays and Ukrainians': Orbán lost to "gays and Ukrainians": How a Pride ban united Budapest against Hungary’s government.

Hungary wasn’t always as illiberal as we’ve come to see it under Orbán. 

Pride events have been held in Budapest since the 1990s. This year’s was the 30th anniversary Pride.

Moreover, over 30 years ago, Viktor Orbán began his political career as a liberal, founding his party Fidesz as a liberal association. However, Orbán later realised that in Hungary it was more advantageous to be a conservative. So he reversed his party’s ideology to the opposite, even introducing amendments into Hungary’s constitution that Brussels considers homophobic.

In 2025, Hungary’s ruling party once again amended the constitution, introducing a policy of "protecting children from LGBT."

There was no doubt from the outset that Pride would also be banned. That was essentially the point of the constitutional amendments. The Hungarian prime minister aimed to turn this ban into a Public Relations victory, presenting himself as a defender of the nation from LGBTQ+ propaganda.

However, instead of triumph, this became an image disaster for Orbán.

First, it created a media narrative: government directives in Hungary were no longer taken seriously.

Second, not only did government directives stop working, but so did threats.

"Let’s thank the police for our wonderful AI-camera photos they took of us," Budapest mayor Gergely Karácsony told the crowd from the stage.

The dictator stopped being feared and started to be ridiculed – a well-known sign of a regime’s decline.

Thirdly: Orbán turned Pride into a protest against himself.

The size of Saturday’s rally was several times larger than previous Prides. The vast majority of participants had never attended an LGBTQ+ rights event before. This time, they came because their protest was directed against Orbán’s regime as a whole.

The Hungarian authorities, faced with a negative trend, began searching for a way out of this public opinion crisis. And it was clear they didn’t really know what to do.

Another popular narrative in pro-government outlets was that Pride united support for gays and Ukrainians.

Eventually, the government settled on this narrative: yes, the Pride was massive, but only because it was supported by all opposition parties, including Orbán’s main rival, Péter Magyar. 

This explanation has a fatal flaw: it is obviously false, as Péter Magyar, whom Orbán most wanted to attack – was actually the only major opposition leader who did not attend Pride, realising it would be used against him.

Magyar has, in recent months, skilfully avoided the political traps set by the government, and each time a major issue or event arises in Hungary, his popularity grows – and it happened again this time.

Hungarian political analysts agree the government has no strategy for defence. It has no counterarguments when Orbán himself unites so many people in opposition that it becomes impossible to hide.