Banning the Rainbow – How Hungarian authorities banned the upcoming Pécs Pride and what the EU should do about it

The annual Pécs Pride will be held on October 4, 2025. Unlike the Budapest Pride in June, which proceeded as a municipality event, Pécs Pride is organized by a private individual as an assembly within the scope of the Assembly Act. The event was banned by the police on September 5, and the Kúria (the supreme court) upheld this decision. If the organizer holds Pécs Pride despite the ban, he will be held criminally liable and may even be punished with imprisonment.

In their joint statement, Amnesty International Hungary, Háttér Society, and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee ask the European Commission to
● use all available enforcement mechanisms to lift the ban and protect both organisers and participants;
● do everything in their power to stop the law from being enforced in Pécs on 4 October 2025; and
● pronounce itself on the entirety of the amendments related to the restriction of fundamental rights introduced earlier this spring. Moreover, it should move to open an accelerated infringement procedure against Hungary’s abuse of facial recognition technology.