So charges against Budapest’s mayor have been dropped. The man who dared to defy the will of Viktor Orbán by attending a Pride march in 2025 is now, technically, not a criminal. Hooray.
Cue the brass band and the waving of EU flags. But let us not be deceived by this theatrical mercy. The mere fact that a mayor could be prosecuted for such a thing is a testament to how far Hungary has slid into the intellectual and moral decadence that once defined the late Roman Empire.
We are now in an age where the spectacle of justice replaces justice itself. The EU, ever the anxious suitor, will likely praise this as a sign of progress. But progress towards what?
A Hungary that occasionally pretends to abide by European norms while quietly dismantling them? This is no victory for liberal democracy. It is a tactical retreat by a regime that knows when to give ground to preserve its power.
The charges were always absurd; their withdrawal is not a sign of enlightenment but of political calculation. The mayor remains under the shadow of Orbán’s system, and the EU remains complicit by accepting these crumbs. We have seen this pattern before in the late Republic, where concessions to popular demands masked the erosion of constitutional order.
The lesson is clear: do not mistake the dropping of a charge for the restoration of virtue. Hungary’s EU credentials are not just tested; they are found wanting. And the applause from Brussels only confirms the decadence of a continent that cheers for the bare minimum.
