Click to expand Image Hungarians march in downtown Budapest to protest against the previous government’s law banning LGBTQ+ Pride events, May 1, 2025. © 2025 Denes Erdos/AP Photo Hungarian prosecutors announced on June 4 that they had dropped charges against a mayor and a civic activist for their roles in organizing 2025 Pride events in Budapest and Pécs. The charges, which were brought under Fidesz-era anti-LGBT legislation, were part of the former government’s crackdown on civic space and LGBT rights.Prosecutors had filed criminal charges this January against Budapest mayor Gergely Karácsony, seeking to fine him for his role in organizing the Pride march in his city in June 2025. Citing Fidesz-era constitutional amendments that targeted Pride events, they used the spurious pretext of “child protection” to restrict the rights of LGBT people.In the city of Pécs, prosecutors charged Géza Buzás-Hábel, a teacher and human rights activist, in February with offenses—punishable by up to a year in prison—related to the local Pride march in October 2025. Buzás-Hábel, who is gay and Roma, is a longstanding organizer of Hungary’s only rural Pride march.The announcements by prosecutors in Budapest and Pécs that all charges against Karácsony and Buzás-Hábel had been dropped both referred to a recent European Court of Justice judgment which found Hungary’s 2021 Fidesz-era anti-LGBT law on “child protection” incompatible with EU law and therefore unlawful. This is an important signal that Hungarian authorities are committed to restoring the rule of law in the country.The European Court’s ruling, following a challenge brought by the European Commission as part of a broader effort to tackle the former Hungarian government’s systematic attack on the rule of law, now requires Hungary’s newly-elected parliament to ensure its domestic law complies with EU law. The Hungarian government should repeal the 2021 law, and other discriminatory legislation and constitutional amendments negatively impacting the rights of LGBT people.Coming during Pride month, prosecutors dropping these charges sends a clear signal to the many thousands of LGBT people and their allies that they can attend Hungary’s upcoming Pride events with joy, and without fear of arrest, fines, or imprisonment on spurious grounds.