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Man Arrested for Throwing Pride Flags Off Bridge in Budapest - 'Free Parade Publicity'

• 24 Jun 2026 12:25 PM
• Hungary Around the Clock

Police have arrested and questioned a 58-year-old man from Mogyoród on suspicion of vandalism after he removed Pride flags from the Erzsébet Bridge on the weekend and threw them into the Danube.

Budapest Police detained the suspect at his home on June 22, and said he confessed to the act during questioning. He has been released while the investigation continues.

Reacting to the incident, mayor Gergely Karácsony thanked the perpetrator for the “free publicity” as he noted that this Saturday’s Budapest Pride march will proceed from the Opera House across the newly reflagged Erzsébet Bridge to the Vérmező in Buda.

Our Homeland MP Előd Novák announced earlier this week that he would pay any fine on behalf of the culprit.

He defended the act as a reaction to what he called a provocation, and said the flags should have been thrown in the trash rather than into the river.

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