Budapest mayor says he’s proud to face costs for main Satisfaction parade

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LISTEN | Full interview with European Inexperienced Get together co-chair Ciarán Cuffe: : As It Occurs 7:03 European Inexperienced Get together stands behind Budapest mayor charged for violating Satisfaction ban

Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony stays defiant after being criminally charged for his position in organizing his metropolis’s Satisfaction parade final summer time in defiance of Hungarian regulation.

Police have been investigating Karacsony for the reason that June 28 march went forward regardless of a Satisfaction ban imposed by Hungary's right-wing nationalist authorities.

"I went from being a proud suspect to a proud defendant,” the mayor, who didn't reply to an interview request from CBC, mentioned in a press release posted to his Fb.

“As a result of it appears that evidently that is the value to be paid on this nation if we arise for our personal freedom and that of others.”

Parade was ‘a rare expertise’ Regardless of the ban, Organizers say a whole bunch of hundreds of individuals participated in Budapest's 2025 Satisfaction parade, in protest of Hungary's anti-2SLGBTQ+ legal guidelines.

Amongst them was Eire’s Ciarán Cuffe, co-chair of the European Inexperienced Get together, of which Karacsony is a member.

“There was an incredible feeling of empowerment to stroll the streets of Budapest together with 200,000 different individuals in a metropolis and in a rustic the place there was, definitely, a clamp down on the liberty of expression,” Cuffe informed As It Occurs host Nil Köksal.

“It was a rare expertise."

Karacsony was charged for organizing an illegal meeting regardless of a prohibition order, the Budapest Chief Prosecutor's Workplace mentioned.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban's ruling get together handed a regulation in March 2025 that banned Satisfaction occasions and allowed authorities to make use of facial recognition instruments to determine attendees.

Orban's authorities says Satisfaction violates kids's rights to ethical and non secular growth. A constitutional modification final yr declared these rights took priority over different basic protections together with the proper to peacefully assemble.

Karacson tried to get across the ban by registering the Satisfaction march as a municipal occasion, which he argued didn't require a allow.

Police, however, prohibited it, saying it fell below the child-protection regulation.

<img loading="lazy" alt="A bridge packed with hundreds of thousands of people" srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/8e70b3af-ef5d-4fcb-b1ac-46d0bb167e5e,1769712367896/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C7735%2C5159%29%3BResize%3D796 796w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/8e70b3af-ef5d-4fcb-b1ac-46d0bb167e5e,1769712367896/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C7735%2C5159%29%3BResize%3D1083 1083w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/8e70b3af-ef5d-4fcb-b1ac-46d0bb167e5e,1769712367896/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C7735%2C5159%29%3BResize%3D1280 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 762px) calc(100vw - 32px),730px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/8e70b3af-ef5d-4fcb-b1ac-46d0bb167e5e,1769712367896/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C7735%2C5159%29%3B" style="aspect-ratio:1.4993215739484396" data-cy="image-img"/> Organizers say 300,00 individuals marched in Budapest Satisfaction on June 28, 2025, regardless of a police ban. ( Janos Kummer/Getty Photos) Prosecutors mentioned Karacsony defied the police order by “repeatedly revealed public calls to take part within the meeting, after which led the meeting."

Karacsony didn't deny the prosecution’s description of occasions.

"That's precisely what occurred,” he wrote.

The prosecution beneficial Karacsony face a fantastic with out a trial. However the mayor says he desires to go to courtroom.

“I'll by no means settle for, nor resign myself to, the concept that in my homeland it may very well be against the law to face up for freedom,” he wrote.

“I'll by no means tolerate this, and regardless of each risk and each punishment, I'll battle it, as a result of when individuals who wish to dwell, to like, to be completely happy are merely betrayed by their very own nation, betrayed by their authorities, resistance is an obligation."

<img loading="lazy" alt="A man holds a hand-written cardboard sign that read: "Je suis Gergely Karacsony." Behind him is a white fence with a rainbow blog and the word "Budapest"" srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/05bb81c6-8ebc-4c54-a60c-81000a2fa755,1769714830623/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C7699%2C5133%29%3BResize%3D796 796w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/05bb81c6-8ebc-4c54-a60c-81000a2fa755,1769714830623/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C7699%2C5133%29%3BResize%3D1083 1083w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/05bb81c6-8ebc-4c54-a60c-81000a2fa755,1769714830623/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C7699%2C5133%29%3BResize%3D1280 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 762px) calc(100vw - 32px),730px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/05bb81c6-8ebc-4c54-a60c-81000a2fa755,1769714830623/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C7699%2C5133%29%3B" style="aspect-ratio:1.4999025910773427" data-cy="image-img"/> Individuals protest close to the headquarters of Hungary's prime investigative authority on Aug. 1, 2025, to precise their solidarity with Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony, who was summoned for questioning over the group of the Satisfaction march. Karacsony has since been criminally charged. (Attlila Volgyi/AFP/Getty Picture) Cuffe says legal guidelines that restrict freedom of meeting and expression are inherently anti-democratic.

“I believe what you noticed marching in Budapest was not simply these advocating for homosexual rights, we additionally noticed these advocating for democracy,” he mentioned.

He says his get together stands behind Karacsony, who it sees as a bulwark within the battle towards the rise of the far-right in elements of Europe, citing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Slovakia Prime Minister Robert Fico as examples.