The rainbow flags are flying over Budapest. Hungary’s first Pride since Viktor Orban’s departure from power is not just a street party. It is a geopolitical signal. And Downing Street is keen to be seen waving the banner.
Sources inside the Foreign Office confirm that UK diplomats have been quietly coordinating with EU counterparts on a joint statement supporting the event. “We want to show that liberal democracy is back on the march in Central Europe,” a senior FCDO official told me last night over a glass of something cheap and white.
The optics are perfect for Keir Starmer. He needs a foreign policy win. He needs to draw a contrast with the previous government’s cosy relationship with Orban’s illiberalism. Remember Boris Johnson’s “love” for the Hungarian strongman? That is an embarrassment the new team wants to bury.
But let’s not get carried away. The reality on the ground is fragile. Orban’s successor, Peter Marki-Zay, won a narrow election. His coalition is a messy alliance of conservatives, liberals, and Greens. They agree on little except that Orban was bad. The Pride march is a test of whether they can deliver on promises of tolerance.
Pride organisers I spoke to are cautiously optimistic. “We have the law on our side now. The police won’t beat us. But the hatred is still there. Orban didn’t create it. He just gave it permission to speak,” one said.
The UK has skin in this game. The Foreign Office has funded civil society groups in Hungary for years. That money was often a lifeline when the state was hostile. Now it can be used to build something new.
Downing Street is framing this as a “championing of universal values”. But the subtext is clear. Britain wants to be seen as a leader in the post-Brexit, post-Trump liberal order. Standing up for a Pride march in Budapest is cheap. It costs nothing. It makes good headlines.
The real test will come when Hungary’s new government asks for something in return. Trade deals. Visa liberalisation. Support for EU budget rebates. Whitehall will then have to choose between principle and pragmatism. The smart money is on pragmatism.
For now, though, let the rainbow flags fly. It is a good day for Budapest. It is a good day for democracy. And for a British government in desperate need of a moral victory, it is a very good day indeed.
