14-07-2025
No arrests after Budapest Pride defied Orban's ban, police say
Hungarian authorities have declined to detain or arrest the tens of thousands of participants who took part in Budapest's LGBTQ+ Pride parade last month, the city's police said in a statement Monday, despite looming fears of an after-the-fact crackdown.
The annual parade and celebration, held since 1995, was in the crosshairs this year, a target of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. Orban, a self-described 'illiberal' Christian conservative, led a push that resulted in the Hungarian parliament banning the public event in March and threatened to track participants with facial recognition technology after organizers pledged to forge ahead.
