Tens of thousands of people filled the streets of Budapest on Saturday for the Hungarian capital's 31st annual Pride march — the first since former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was voted out of office in April after 16 years in power. Participants set off from the city's iconic Opera House, winding through the centre before crossing the Erzsébet Bridge over the Danube River, dancing to music and waving rainbow flags in temperatures that reached at least 38°C (100°F) amid a record-breaking heat wave gripping much of Europe. Organisers distributed water bottles to marchers, and the city's public water utility opened fountains along the route.

The atmosphere carried a palpable sense of relief. "There used to be a lot of tension. But now I see people as being somehow happier, and there are more older people, too," said Luca Új, attending her third Pride. Hadja Lahbib, the Belgian EU Commissioner for Equality, spoke at a press conference alongside Budapest's Green mayor Gergely Karácsony, reflecting on the transformation since last year. "That march didn't just make history — it helped change history, and what a difference a year makes," she said. "The wind of change is blowing through this great nation."

The march took place against a significant legal backdrop. Just over a year ago, Orbán's nationalist-populist government passed legislation and a constitutional amendment banning the event — framing Pride as a violation of children's rights to moral and spiritual development, a claim rejected by human rights groups and many independent experts. Last year's march went ahead in defiance of the ban and drew an estimated 350,000 people, one of the largest in the event's history. This year's turnout was lower than in 2024 but higher than in previous editions, according to journalists from the AFP news agency on the ground. Prosecutors have since dropped charges against last year's organisers, and police authorised Saturday's event and provided security along the route.

Yet the legal framework from the Orbán era remains largely intact. Hungary's new centre-right Prime Minister, Péter Magyar of the Tisza party, has not repealed the laws outlawing Pride or the bans on same-sex marriage and adoption. His position on LGBTQ+ rights remains ambiguous: he avoided the subject during the election campaign and did not attend Saturday's march. Since taking office, however, he has offered more open signals, stating that "nobody should be stigmatised because of the way they love" and that his government would not dictate how Hungarians live their private lives. In April, the European Court of Justice ruled that Orbán-era legislation from 2021 restricting LGBTQ+ content for minors violates EU law.

For many marchers, the day felt like a turning point even if formal legal change has yet to follow. "The laws haven't changed yet, but there are already many signs of hope for our community," said Kristóf Györgyi, a first-time participant who travelled from the southern city of Szeged. Debate in parliament over same-sex adoption rights, he said, was itself a sign of progress — a conversation that would have been unthinkable under the previous government. Whether Magyar's administration will translate cautious rhetoric into concrete reform remains the central question for Hungary's LGBTQ+ community.