The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán this week passed a law banning LGBTQ+ Pride parades and other similar demonstrations in Hungary.

The ban is part of a broader effort to protect children from lewd content and far-left gender ideology, writes Magyar Nemzet.

– Today we voted in favour of banning gatherings that violate child protection laws. In Hungary, children’s right to healthy physical, mental, intellectual and moral development comes first. We will not let woke ideology put our children at risk, Orbán wrote on X.

Spokesman for the ruling Fidesz party, Tamás Menczer, said that «Pride and child protection are not compatible!», adding that «anyone who has seen just a few photos and videos from previous Prides knows this».

Budapest Pride is naturally very disappointed with the decision, writing on Facebook:

– This is not child protection, this is fascism. Pride is not just a protest. Pride is a movement.

– The government is trying to limit the peaceful protests of critical voices by attacking a minority. That’s why we will fight as a movement for all Hungarians to be able to protest freely!

Left-wing representatives in parliament, affiliated with the Momentum Movement (MOMO), are outraged by the decision. Several parliamentarians fired smoke bombs in the Hungarian parliament. Such smoke bombs are toxic and not intended for indoor use.

Balázs Orbán sits in parliament for Fidesz, and writes on X:

Outside the Hungarian Parliament today a small gathering with no popular support. Inside dangerous radicals sought to choke our parliamentary debate using unsafe tactics imported from abroad. Hungarians all know the liberal playbook now. There is no democratic mandate for it… pic.twitter.com/m2w4fpVzSo

– Balázs Orbán (@BalazsOrban_HU) March 19, 2025

Fidesz’s parliamentary leader, Máté Kocsis, said that «it’s quite obvious what the game is about, and this pro-Pride fire prediction was just the precursor of what foreign financiers are preparing for.»

– It’s interesting to note that they’ve never gone out against war or illegal migration by such militant means.

The dispute comes as Hungary enters the campaign season for next year’s parliamentary elections, which will determine whether Prime Minister Orbán, already the longest-serving elected head of government in the EU, will be given a new mandate to lead the country.

There is speculation that the attack on Pride is a strategic challenge to Orbán’s main challenger Péter Magyar. Magyar has sought to avoid the culture war as an LGBT, and is attempting to portray himself as a centrist neoliberal in order to win votes from both the right and the left.