In the face of trailing poll numbers in upcoming parliamentary elections in Hungary, the government of ruling strongman Viktor Orbán formally charged the mayor of Budapest in connection with defying a ban on a Pride march in the capital city. An estimated quarter-million people turned out for the rally in June.

Prosecutors asked a court for a summary judgment in lieu of trial against Mayor Gergely Karácsony for declaring the march a municipal event. Karácsony “organized and led a public gathering despite the police ban,” they said in charging documents reported by the Guardian. He faces an undetermined fine.

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Budapest mayor will “stand proudly” for “freedom” as he faces charges for city’s Pride march

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.

Karácsony was warned in December that charges were imminent. He responded quickly to the prosecutors’ decision.

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“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, mayor of Budapest since 2019, is a progressive opposition leader and longtime champion of LGBTQ+ rights in his city; he’s hung both the Pride flag and Ukrainian flag at city hall.

In his post, Karácsony vowed to “stand up for freedom in the face of selfish, petty and despicable power.”

“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.”

Ahead of June’s officially banned event, government officials threatened that organizers could face up to a year in prison, and warned attendees that it would use facial recognition software to identity and fine participants.

With Karácsony’s encouragement, however, the march turned into a massive show of resistance, attracting hundreds of thousands of Hungarians, neighboring EU citizens and dozens of MPs from the European Parliament eager to register their disapproval of Orbán’s own defiance of European human rights law.

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.

The prime minister is using his crusade against the LGBTQ+ community as a wedge issue in the upcoming national elections, slated for April, opponents say. New polling this week shows Fidesz trailing opposition party Tisza by 10 points.

Orbán and Fidesz have ruled the country since 2010, and the prime minister has been the face of authoritarianism in Europe. He counts President Donald Trump as an enthusiastic supporter.

But the new poll shows signs Hungary may have had enough of the strongman. His majority support is limited to older, uneducated voters in rural regions of the country, while younger Hungarians support the opposition party by a wide margin, with 41% for Tisza versus 22% for Fidesz among voters younger than 39.

Three years ago, the illiberal Law and Justice Party in nearby Poland was swept from power in a similar political climate. The last vestiges of the party’s state-sanctioned anti-LGBTQ+ policies were eliminated in April.

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