The mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony, says he’s facing charges for defying authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán’s ban on Pride marches in Hungary.

“The police concluded their investigation against me in connection with the Budapest Pride march in June with a recommendation to press charges,” he said in a video posted to Facebook. “They accuse me of violating the [new law on] freedom of assembly, which is completely absurd.”

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In April, Hungary’s Parliament passed the Assembly Act, a constitutional amendment that codifies earlier law banning events that involve a “depiction or promotion” of homosexuality, together with government recognition of only two sexes, male and female.

Like his authoritarian ally Vladimir Putin in Russia, Orbán has engaged in a politically motivated campaign against the “degenerate West” and instituted “gay propaganda” laws prohibiting the “depiction or promotion” of homosexuality to minors.

Opponents of Orbán’s nationalist Fidesz party say the prime minister is using his crusade against the LGBTQ+ community as a wedge issue in upcoming national elections, slated for April, with Karácsony’s prosecution as just the latest example. The mayor describes it as political payback.

Fidesz trails the challenger, Tisza, by 7 points among decided voters in a November poll, Politico reports. That gap narrowed by three points from the previous month.

After Karácsony rejected the government’s edict and allowed the rally to proceed, several EU politicians joined the event to show solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community, as well as their displeasure with Orbán for flouting EU human rights protections.

The mayor said he was questioned by state police in August.

“I became a suspect, and if that is the price we have to pay in this country for standing up for our own freedom and that of others, then I am proud of it,” Karácsony posted to Facebook at the time.

“In a system where the law protects power rather than people, in this system that stifles free communities, it was inevitable that sooner or later, as the mayor of a free city, they would take criminal action against me,” Karácsony said in the video sharing news of his pending prosecution.

“I am proud that I took every political risk for the sake of my city’s freedom, and I stand proudly before the court to defend my own freedom and that of my city.”

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