The Associated Press reports:

Tens of thousands of people gathered in soaring temperatures in Hungary’s capital on Saturday to celebrate the 31st annual Budapest Pride, the first such LGBTQ+ march since former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who had sought to ban the event, was ousted in an April election.

The march began Saturday afternoon as temperatures reached at least 100 degrees amid a record-breaking heat wave that has gripped most of Europe. Organizers distributed water bottles to marchers, and the city’s public water utility opened fountains along the route.

Participants set off from Budapest’s iconic Opera house and wound through the city center before crossing the Erzsébet Bridge over the Danube River. Members of Hungary’s LGBTQ+ community and masses of supporters danced to music and waved rainbow flags.

In open defiance of the ban, last year’s Pride went on as planned and was the biggest in Hungary’s history, with organizers estimating attendance at over 350,000. The massive turnout for the march, which the government for months had insisted would no longer be permitted, was seen as a major blow to Orbán’s prestige

Read the full article.