The mayor of Hungary’s capital has been indicted for helping organize a Pride march last year, in spite of a new law that forbade public LGBTQ+ events.
Hungarian prosecutors said Wednesday they would seek to impose a fine on Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony for promoting the Pride celebration, rather than seeking to jail him, Courthouse News reports. They did not specify the amount of the fine.
“I was a suspect. Now I’m being accused because I stood up for freedom — my own and of others,” Karácsony wrote in a post on the social media platform X. “Prosecutors are seeking to fine me without a trial for announcing and organizing Budapest Büszkeség,” or Budapest Pride.
Related: Budapest Pride to proceed despite Hungary’s LGBTQ+ event ban
Last year, Hungary amended its 2021 Child Protection Act, disallowing the “depiction or promotion” of homosexuality to minors. The move came just months before Budapest’s 30th annual Pride celebration was scheduled to take place.
Prosecutors alleged that Karácsony invited the public to attend the after the law took effect. Despite the crackdown, Budapest’s Pride festival brought in more than 100,000 attendees last June, with a march that began at City Hall.
Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a far-right ally of Donald Trump, voiced strong disapproval of the event. Hungary has passed sweeping anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in recent years, an effort that has been challenged in European Union courts.
Related: Hungarians protest Pride ban; Budapest mayor promises LGBTQ+ support
Karácsony denounced the indictment on social media and said it would not stop him from “standing up for freedom, free speech or love.”
“I refuse to be intimidated or silenced,” he said on X. “Despite threats or punishment, I will continue to fight. Freedom and love cannot be banned!”
This article was written as part of the Future of Queer Media fellowship program at The Advocate, which is underwritten by a generous gift from Morrison Media Group. The program helps support the next generation of LGBTQ+ journalists.