Hungary prosecutors drop charges against Budapest mayor for organizing 2025 Pride March – JURIST

The Budapest 5th and 13th District Prosecutor’s Office dropped the charges Thursday against the city’s Mayor Gergely Karácsony for organizing the 2025 Budapest Pride March.

In Thursday’s statement, the Hungarian prosecution maintained that it had brought the charges lawfully, in accordance with the law in force at the time. However, a European court held that the anti-LGBTQ+ law, passed in the guise of child protection, is inconsistent with the EU’s founding values and treaties. Having considered its duty to ensure compliance with the EU law, the prosecution decided to drop the charges, as the ruling renders organizing Pride parades no longer a crime.

Citing the same reason, the Pécs District Prosecutor’s Office also dropped the charges against Géza Buzás-Hábel, the organizer of 2025 Pécs Pride. Human rights groups, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have condemned the prosecutions against the pair and called for a withdrawal of their charges.

Hungary enacted several laws in 2021 to prohibit the dissemination to minors of content relating to homosexuality and gender identity different from sex assigned at birth. The laws cover school materials, advertisements, television content and other media. In April, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that these provisions are inconsistent with Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and Article 1 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The articles codify the values of respect for human dignity, equality, human rights and non-discrimination.

The primacy of EU law requires national authorities and courts not to enforce national law that is inconsistent with EU law, even if the national legislature has not repealed it. While the withdrawal of charges represents the authorities’ willingness to comply with the court’s ruling, the laws are not automatically invalidated. Human Rights Watch has called for the repeal of the anti-LGBTQ law.

The ruling marks the first time the court has found a self-standing breach of Article 2 of the TEU. European public law scholar Benedikt Riedl argued that the court unjustifiably expanded its power to decide whether a national government has breached Article 2 based on the court’s standard of EU values. The determinations of Article 2 breaches are usually made through a political procedure within the European Council under Article 7. A positive determination of the breach may result in suspension of certain rights as an EU member state.

UN rights chief Volker Türk cited Hungary’s arrest and targeting of LGBTQ+ people under the administration of former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán when speaking of the worsening trend of discrimination on May 21. He has urged for stronger protection of LGBTQ+ people. Whether and how the new Prime Minister Péter Magyar will bring change to LGBTQ+ rights in Hungary remains to be observed.