Lisbon chosen to host EuroPride in 2025

In the wake of the firestorm surrounding this year’s recent EuroPride in Belgrade, the Portuguese capital Lisbon has been chosen as the host city of EuroPride in 2025.

EuroPride is a pan-European LGBTIQ event featuring a Pride parade, hosted by a different European city each year.

The bid to host the 2025 event was presented by Portuguese partner organisations ILGA Portugal, Variações and rede ex aequo at the annual general meeting of the European Pride Organisers Association (EPOA) in Torino, Italy.

Lisbon competed against a bid for the German city of Magdeburg, and won with 79% of the votes cast by EPOA member Prides.

“This is a historic moment for us and for EuroPride,” commented a spokesperson for the Lisbon team. “2025 marks the first time that Portugal receives an LGBTI+ large-scale event and our organisations are extremely proud to have been entrusted with this task.”

The spokesperson continued: “In an ever-growing hostile environment, not only towards LGBTI+ rights but to human rights in general, we have decided to highlight the need to visibly and boldly occupy public spaces and to call out our paper towns.”

The Lisbon team pledged to “impose social and political changes on a national and European level, but also beyond Europe – particularly in the Lusophone space and beyond any neo-colonial perspectives.”

The recent EuroPride 2022 parade in Belgrade was mired in controversy after the Serbian authorities attempted to ban it in response to anti-LGBTQ+ resistance from the Orthodox Church and nationalist groups. The event eventually went ahead but had to be protected by police from violent protestors who rioted in the streets.

The President of the European Pride Organisers Association, Kristine Garina, congratulated Lisbon on its bid.

“After this year’s EuroPride in Serbia there can be no doubt about the importance of EuroPride as a vehicle for change and progress across Europe. This will be the first time the event has taken place in a Portuguese-speaking nation and I am excited to see their plans develop,” said Garina.

The next two EuroPride events will be hosted by Malta in 2023 and Thessaloniki in Greece in 2024.