Budapest mayor faces fine over pride parade

Gergely Karacsony urged supporters to defy a police ban on the LGBTQ event last year

Hungarian prosecutors have called for Budapest’s opposition mayor to be fined for boosting attendance at a pride parade last year, which police had banned under newly enacted legislation.

The event occurred in June, months after Hungary amended laws to subject public assemblies to an existing ban on exposing minors to LGBTQ-themed content. Gergely Karacsony, in office since 2019, rejected the ban and urged supporters to show up.

District prosecutors filed the charges, the Prosecutor General’s office announced Wednesday. It noted Karacsony did not seek legal recourse to overturn the ban but instead released video statements encouraging its violation. Prosecutors are seeking a fine without a trial.

Karacsony said he was proud to go from suspect to accused, calling it the price of “standing up for our own and others’ freedom” and repeating his call to oppose what he termed “a selfish, petty, and vile government.”

Before the rally, he argued the parade was a municipal event, not a standard public assembly requiring police permission. Organizers reported record attendance.

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Earlier this month, Karacsony received the Dutch Geuzenpenning award for “courageous commitment to democratic values” and pro-LGBTQ advocacy.

The conservative government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has repeatedly clashed with EU leadership over its traditional-values policies, which Brussels says violate minority rights. Budapest claims the “woke agenda” harms society and must be resisted.