Second Pride Banned in EU in 2025
Forbidden Colours calls on the European Commission to act against rising anti-LGBTIQ+ repression in the EU. Rémy Bonny will travel to Oradea to support the local community.
Brussels, 23 July 2025 – The Municipality of Oradea, Romania, has banned the 2025 edition of Oradea Pride, scheduled for 26 July, marking the second Pride ban within the European Union this year. Just months after the ban on Budapest Pride, the decision by Oradea’s local government continues a deeply worrying trend of state authorities obstructing LGBTIQ+ people’s access to public space and freedom of assembly.
Despite proposing 11 alternative routes, Pride organisers from the ARK Oradea association were met with blanket rejections by the city, citing overlapping public events and infrastructure works—conveniently announced on the same day as the ban. No alternative solution was offered.
“This is not a logistical accident—it’s a deliberate political decision to silence queer voices,” said Rémy Bonny, Executive Director of Forbidden Colours. “The right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression are not optional. They are fundamental rights enshrined in both the Romanian Constitution and the EU Treaties. If these rights can be stripped away in Hungary and now Romania without legal consequences, then democracy itself is in danger.”
The 2025 Oradea Pride March will go ahead regardless of the ban, on an alternative route starting at 15:30 on 26 July, in the form of a peaceful protest. Organisers have already filed a legal complaint against the Municipality for breaching their constitutional obligations and systematically obstructing LGBTIQ+ visibility for a third year in a row.
“This is no longer just a local issue. It is part of a wider authoritarian playbook targeting minorities across Europe. When public authorities in EU cities decide who has the right to exist in public space, we are entering dangerous territory. What’s happening in Oradea today mirrors what Orbán has institutionalised in Hungary.”
In a powerful show of solidarity, Rémy Bonny will travel to Oradea this weekend to join the banned Pride and will deliver a speech during the protest:
“I will stand side by side with Romania’s brave LGBTIQ+ community to say: we are here, we are visible, and we will not back down. This is not just a protest against a ban. It is a march for freedom, for equality, and for the democratic future of Europe.”
Forbidden Colours calls on the European Commission to take immediate legal action against Member States that violate LGBTIQ+ rights under EU law. The Commission’s failure to respond to the Budapest Pride ban has sent a dangerous signal of impunity.
“If the Commission continues to look away, it becomes complicit in the erosion of our Union’s core values. It’s time to act—because Pride bans are not isolated events, they are stress tests for European democracy,” Bonny concluded.
