Péter Magyar, Pride and Protest - What Really Began in Budapest at the End of June

Something is happening in Hungary - a lot, in fact. That became clear to us in February when we traveled to Budapest to investigate several topics: a clandestine meeting and concert of militant Blood and Honour structures with close ties to Russia, as well as the discreet visit of Alice Weidel, which received hardly any public attention - but we had some beautiful pictures. What we saw was a country in internal contradiction - between authoritarian retreat and civic awakening, between ideological stagnation and new unrest in the streets.

It was not supposed to take place, but it became the largest political protest in the last ten years: the thirtieth Pride in Budapest. Even though Viktor Orbán’s government had tightened assembly laws and placed events with LGBTQ+ references under the so-called child protection law, more than two hundred thousand people marched through the streets of the Hungarian capital in June. Officially, the march was deemed "unauthorized," but that hardly mattered. Because it was no longer just about LGBTQ rights - it was about freedom of speech, participation, and the state of a nation that, according to polls, 68 percent of the population believes is on the wrong track. The protest came at a particularly delicate moment for Orbán. Since 2010, he has ruled with an iron hand, brought the press under control, subordinated the judiciary, and used the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to grant himself nearly unlimited powers by decree. In just the first two and a half months after the emergency law came into effect, his government issued over 150 decrees - many of which had nothing to do with the pandemic. Critical reporting was criminalized, journalists came under state scrutiny. The last major independent radio station, Klubrádió, lost its license, and the online platform Index.hu was taken over by government-aligned investors. Hungary’s position in the global press freedom ranking fell to 68th place.

At the same time, a campaign was launched against everything Orbán and his party perceived as a threat to family, nation, and “Hungarian values.” In the name of child protection, a law was passed in 2021 criminalizing the “promotion of homosexuality and gender reassignment” to minors - a wording so vague that it could criminalize any form of queer visibility. A referendum in 2022 was intended to retroactively legitimize the law, but it failed due to a massive boycott campaign by civil society groups: the majority submitted invalid votes. The law nevertheless remained in force - and was further tightened in 2025, specifically to target Pride. What Orbán had not anticipated: that this very attempt to erase queer presence from public life would mobilize tens of thousands - not just from the LGBTQ community, but from all sectors of an increasingly dissatisfied population. This year’s Pride was led by the mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony. Once a symbol of a united opposition, he had renounced his candidacy in 2022 in favor of the much less well-known Péter Márki-Zay. The decision proved fateful: Fidesz once again won the majority, the opposition parties fell apart. For a long time, it seemed that no one could threaten Orbán anymore. But then came Péter Magyar.

That this man of all people would become Orbán’s most serious challenger is one of the great political ironies of the present. Magyar was no opposition fighter, no dissident - but an insider from the very core of the system, ex-husband of former Justice Minister Judit Varga, and until recently hardly known. That changed abruptly after a scandal that shook Hungary: the presidential pardon of a pedophile group home director by President Katalin Novák, who subsequently had to resign. Varga also stepped down. Shortly thereafter, Magyar gave an interview that went viral: he spoke of a system in which “the real power brokers hide behind women's skirts” and openly criticized the corruption within the power apparatus. Within months, he surged from zero to thirty percent approval in the European elections - a phenomenon unprecedented in Hungary. Magyar's strength lies not only in his boldness but in his strategy. He does not address the urban intelligentsia, but those who have long formed Orbán's most stable base: people in small towns, rural areas, and forgotten regions. He knows the system from the inside - and uses its mechanisms against itself. Fast, loud, and omnipresent, he visits villages where the opposition has not been seen in years. He flirts with national myths, speaks of “Greater Hungary” before the Treaty of Trianon, without making the mistake of becoming too entangled in the past. And when Orbán in May 2025, at the opening of a Benedictine monastery, signaled support for a Romanian nationalist who had previously organized anti-Hungarian rallies, it was Magyar who then marched on foot from Budapest to the Romanian border - to show solidarity with Hungarian minorities. It was a gesture that resonated deeply with the right-wing base.

Still, Orbán’s system remains stable - for now. It does not function through violence, but through control. Unlike Putin, Orbán does not rely on mass arrests or targeted intimidation. He doesn’t need to. The judiciary obeys, the parliament approves, and laws like the “Transparency Act” of May 2025 allow for the economic and legal dismantling of dissenting organizations - for example, through fines twenty-five times the amount of foreign funding received. This can bring any NGO or foundation to its knees without sending a single police officer. And yet, recent developments show: fear is beginning to crack. After Pride, an initial charge was filed against one participant - activist Lili Pankotai - but the investigation was quickly dropped. A Hungarian “Bolotnaya trial,” like in Russia back then, did not materialize. The system does not want martyrs. It wants control without blood. Orbán’s power is based on the myth of the freedom fighter - precisely the role he assigned to himself in 1989 with his legendary speech against communist rule. Were he to use violence, that myth would be shattered instantly.

Hungary’s authoritarian transformation is far advanced, but it is not complete. The successes of Budapest Pride and Péter Magyar show that resistance still exists - and a longing for a different Hungary. According to polls, 79 percent of the population would like to remain in the EU. 68 percent are dissatisfied with the government's course. Elections will be held in April 2026. Then it will become clear whether Orbán’s system will survive - or whether what began in Budapest at the end of June was truly a revolution.

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