(AGENPARL) - Roma, 29 Gennaio 2026 - (AGENPARL) – Thu 29 January 2026 Image
PRESS RELEASE
Congress of Local and Regional Authorities
Ref. CG002(2026)
Council of Europe Congress condemns charges against the Budapest Mayor, urges authorities to drop them
The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe is the political assembly representing local and regional governments across the 46 member States, responsible for promoting and monitoring local democracy.
“In June 2025, Congress Standing Rapporteur on Human Rights Gudrun Mosler-Törnström (Austria, SOC/G/PD) met Mayor Karácsony in Budapest on the eve of Budapest Pride to express the Congress support of his firm stance against restricting the human rights of LGBTIQ+ persons, including their freedoms of expression and of assembly. She stressed at the time that national constitutions and legislation cannot be used to force local authorities to violate human rights of citizens.
“In October 2025, Mayor Karácsony addressed the Congress session in Strasbourg on freedom of peaceful assembly, where he called Pride 2025 ‘an act of civic resistance’ showing that local authorities, allied with civil society, can protect the ‘small circles of freedom’.
“The Congress continues to follow closely the situation of human rights of LGBTIQ+ persons at local level in Europe and has conducted this week a study visit to Poland which brought together public authorities, NGOs, and activists. A report on freedom of speech and assembly of LGBTI persons will be debated at a forthcoming Congress session,” stated President Cools.
Composed of two chambers – the Chamber of Local Authorities and the Chamber of Regions – and three committees, the Congress brings together 612 elected officials representing more than 130 000 local and regional authorities.
President of the Congress: Marc Cools (Belgium, ILDG), President of the Chamber of Local Authorities: Bernd Vöhringer (Germany, EPP/CCE), President of the Chamber of Regions: Cecilia Dalman Eek (Sweden, SOC/G/PD).
Political groups: Group of Socialists, Greens and Progressive Democrats (SOC/G/PD), Group of the European Peoples Party (EPP/CCE), Independent Liberal and Democratic Group (ILDG), European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR).
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