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Prosecutors in Hungary have filed charges against the progressive mayor of Budapest, seeking to fine him months after hundreds of thousands of people heeded his call to take to the streets in defiance of the government’s ban on Pride.
The June march made headlines around the world after the ruling Fidesz party, led by the rightwing populist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, backed legislation that created a legal basis for Pride to be banned, citing a widely criticised need to protect children.
The legislation, believed to be the first of its kind in the EU’s recent history, led Hungarian police to ban Budapest Pride. Soon after, however, the city’s mayor, Gergely Karácsony, declared it to be a municipal event in an attempt to circumvent official authorisation.
A record number of people – including Hungarians from across the country and dozens of MEPs and officials from across Europe – turned up, transforming the march into a potent symbol of pushback against Orbán and his government’s steady rollback of rights.
On Wednesday, prosecutors said Karácsony had “organised and led a public gathering despite the police ban”, adding in a statement that they were proposing “that the court impose a fine on the defendant in a summary judgment without a trial”. The statement did not detail the amount of the fine.
The decision by prosecutors comes less than three months before parliamentary elections in which Orbán, who has long faced criticism for weakening democratic institutions, eroding media freedom and undermining the rule of law, is facing an unprecedented challenge from a former top member of his own party, Péter Magyar.
While Orbán and his government have long worked to roll back LGBTQ+ rights, campaigners have pointed to Orbán’s trailing poll numbers to suggest that LGBTQ+ communities are being increasingly scapegoated as the government scrambles to shore up support among conservative voters.
Budapest’s mayor, who has led the city since 2019, quickly responded to the decision by prosecutors. “I have gone from being a proud suspect to a proud defendant,” Karácsony said on social media. “Because it seems that this is the price we pay in this country when we stand up for our own freedom and that of others.”
Karácsony, a prominent opposition figure who has hung LGBTQ+ and Ukrainian flags on the city’s administration building, vowed to continue to “stand up for freedom in the face of selfish, petty and despicable power”. He added: “Because when people who want to live, to love, to be happy are betrayed by their own country, betrayed by their government, resistance is a duty.”
In the lead-up to Budapest Pride, government officials had warned that organisers could face up to a year in prison. The government had also said it would use facial recognition software to identify and potentially fine attenders up to €500, but police announced in July that they would not take action against the estimated 200,000 people who had turned up.
On Wednesday, Vula Tsetsi, the co-chair of the European Green party, pointed to the wider significance of an elected mayor being punished for defending fundamental rights in the EU. “This is not just about Pride; it is a test of whether the EU will stand for democracy,” she said in a statement.
The sentiment was echoed by the party’s co-chair, Ciarán Cuffe. “The Orbán regime’s attempt to punish Gergely Karácsony without granting a trial underlines the authoritarian trajectory of Hungary under Orbán,” he said. “European institutions must not look away when a member state criminalises peaceful assembly and democratic leadership.”
