Despite Orbán cabinet’s ban, Mayor Karácsony promises to hold Pride 2025

This year’s Budapest Pride march will go ahead as planned “and will be the biggest one yet”, Gergely Karácsony, the city’s mayor, said on Facebook late on Wednesday.

“As the mayor of the 14th district, I was the first to hang the rainbow flag on a public building,” Karácsony said. “Since I’ve been mayor of Budapest, the rainbow flag has been displayed on City Hall every year, and this practice will continue even if the government prohibits it. And since I’ve been mayor, the metropolitan council has helped out with organising Budapest Pride each year and will continue to help even if the government prohibits it.”

Karácsony said he was convinced that “the city belongs to everyone” and that “we can only be free if we are all free.”

First installment of Rákosrendező purchase price set to be transferred Thursday

The first installment of the Rakosrendezo development area is expected to be transferred on Thursday after technical consultations with the Hungarian National Asset Management Company (MNV) are concluded, the director general of the mayor’s office has said.

Consultations with MNV began early last week, and the mayor’s office hopes to clonclude them on Thursday, Ambrus Kiss told a press event on Wednesday. The office believes everything will then be in place for the first installment of the purchase price to be transferred that day, he said, adding that this would allow utilities company BKM to register its ownership of the area.

Talks will continue with state-owned railway company MAV and the construction and transportation ministry, he said, adding that this included the acquisition of the property and a development agreement. BKM must sign a contract with MAV on regulating the use of areas for rolling stock, he noted. Kiss also said that under the metropolitan assembly’s most recent decision, city councillors are set to discuss a tender for a development plan in June.

Concerning the issue of the solidarity tax Kiss noted that the metropolitan council has filed multiple lawsuits contesting its amount, Kiss, said. Asked about the Pride march, Kiss said the city council would do everything it could to ensure that the event goes ahead, adding that Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony has met and consulted with the organisers. The director general said he expects to see “the biggest Pride march in Budapest yet”.

Budapest city council must operate lawfully, safely, says Botond Sára

Budapest’s metropolitan council must operate lawfully and safely, Botond Sára, the city’s government commissioner, said on Wednesday, adding that a court ruling had confirmed that the city council was operating unlawfully. “We have received the ruling declaring that the metropolitan council is operating unlawfully,” Sára said in a video on Facebook, noting that Karácsony still did not have a deputy.

The non-binding ruling can be appealed within 15 days. “I don’t think there’s any point in doing so, unless the aim is to stall for time,” the government commissioner said. In its ruling, the court ordered Karacsony to nominate a deputy mayor from among the city councillors and the metropolitan assembly to elect the nominee, Sára said. The mayor and the city assembly will have 30 days to do this once the ruling becomes legally binding, he added.

Read also:

• Hungary officially passes anti-LGBTQ+ law, banning Pride: Thousands protest – PHOTOS, VIDEO and details HERE
• VIDEO: Hungarian Parliament bans Budapest Pride LGBTQ march as opposition protests with smoke bombs