Budapest Mayor Faces Police Questioning Amid Government Crackdown on Pride Event

In a stark reminder of how governments can weaponize the law to suppress dissent, Budapest's liberal Mayor Gergely Karácsony was questioned by police after helping organize the capital's largest-ever LGBTQ+ Pride march. This event directly defied Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s right-wing populist administration, which had recently enacted draconian measures banning such gatherings. When Government Overreach Masks as Moral Protection Orbán's government did not hesitate to label the Pride march illegal, justifying their crackdown with claims of protecting children’s "moral and spiritual development." But beneath this veneer lies an alarming erosion of national sovereignty over individual freedoms. The same government wielding...