Hungarian prosecutors have filed fees in opposition to the mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony, for his role in organizing town’s thirtieth annual LGBTQ+ Pride event regardless of a controversial ban, the mayor’s workplace stated Wednesday.
“The prosecution has filed charges and wants to impose a financial penalty on me without a court hearing, simply because we held the largest freedom march of the past decades,” Karácsony stated in an announcement.
“The fact that hundreds of thousands of people came, that you came, turned that day into an unforgettable miracle,” he added.
Last 12 months, Hungarian lawmakers handed a law banning Pride occasions in the nation and permitting authorities to make use of facial recognition expertise to determine these attending any occasions, sparking outrage from rights teams and a few politicians.
Campaigners on the time branded the regulation unlawful and stated it was a part of a wider crackdown on the LGBTQ+ neighborhood. Budapest’s Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to NCS Wednesday it had filed fees in opposition to Karácsony for his role in organizing and main the Pride occasion.
Despite the regulation, enormous crowds gathered in the Hungarian capital on June 28, 2025, to have a good time the festivities.
Demonstrators carried indicators studying “Solidarity with Budapest Pride” and waved placards bearing crossed-out illustrations of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose get together has been enacting anti-LGBTQ+ laws for a number of years, usually below the guise of “child protection.”
In 2020, the nation effectively barred same-sex adoption, with Orbán’s workplace saying on the time the transfer strengthened “the protection of Hungarian families and the safety of our children.”
A 12 months later, the nation banned the distribution of content material associated to homosexuality or gender change to these below the age of 18, one thing the European Commission stated violated “a number of EU rules.”
Orbán welcomed the Pride ban when it was handed final March, posting on X: “We won’t let woke ideology endanger our kids.”
In response to Wednesday’s announcement, Vula Tsetsi, co-chair of the European Green Party, defended Karácsony, saying he “did exactly what any democratic leader should: he protected the rights, dignity, and safety of his citizens.”
Karácsony on Wednesday vowed to proceed to “fight” for freedom of expression.
“Despite every threat and every punishment, I will fight it – because when people who want to live, to love, to be happy are simply betrayed by their own country, betrayed by their government, resistance is a duty,” he stated.
NCS’s Sophie Tanno and Catherine Nicholls contributed reporting.