BUDAPEST Mayor Gergely Karacsony has been charged for organising a banned LGBTQ+ Pride event last year that was among the largest in Hungary’s history.

The June 28 march went ahead in defiance of a ban imposed by Hungary’s far-right government. Organisers said that about 300,000 people had participated.

Mr Karacsony was charged with organising the unlawful assembly despite a prohibition order, the Budapest Chief Prosecutor’s Office said. It recommended that be fined without a trial.

Prosecutors said that the mayor had made “repeatedly published public calls to participate in the assembly and then led the assembly.”

Mr Karacsony said he was a “proud defendant.”

In a statement, he said that “this is the price you pay if you stand up for your own freedom and the freedom of others.”

Mr Karacsony did not dispute the prosecution’s depiction of his role in the march, writing: “That is exactly what happened” and saying that “resistance is a duty.”

Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s party passed a law in March 2025 banning Pride events and allowing the use of facial recognition tools to identify attendees.

The government claims that Pride violates children’s rights to moral and spiritual development.