Budapest mayor charged over call for people to defy Pride ban

Prosecutors in Hungary have filed charges against Gergely Karacsony, the mayor of Budapest, seeking to fine him months after hundreds of thousands of people heeded his call totake to the streets in defiance of the government's ban on Pride.

- Ashifa Kassam

The June march made headlines after the ruling Fidesz party, led by the right wing populist prime minister, Viktor Orban, backed legislation that created a legal basis for Pride to be banned, citing a widely criticised need to protect children.

The legislation, believed to be the first of its kind in the EU’s recent history, led Hungarian police to ban Budapest Pride. Soonafter, however, Karacsony declared it tobeamunicipal eventinanattemptto circumvent official authorisation.

A record number of people - including dozens of MEPs and officials from across Europe - turned up, transforming the march intoa potent symbol of pushback against Orban’s steady rollback of rights.