Overview

• Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony was summoned for a police hearing over his role in the June 28 Pride parade and faces up to one year in prison if convicted.
• Karácsony arrived at the hearing wearing a T-shirt bearing the city’s coat of arms in rainbow colors and declared that neither freedom nor love can be outlawed in Budapest.
• Organizers rebranded the event as a municipal festival to bypass the conservative national government’s law prohibiting LGBTQ+ assemblies introduced in March.
• The June demonstration attracted an estimated 200,000 participants despite a police ban and authorities’ use of facial-recognition technology to film attendees.
• Justice Minister Bence Tuzson warned that organizing a forbidden demonstration could be punished with up to one year’s imprisonment.