Dutch far-right firebrand Geert Wilders slammed Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony for supposedly making a Nazi salute during Saturday's Pride march in the Hungarian capital.
Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV), posted the allegation on social media, claiming Karácsony made "an antisemitic Nazi gesture" while Amsterdam's mayor "stood laughing behind him."
Karácsony responded by denying it was a Nazi salute, but that he was rather pointing to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's official residence.
"I'm pointing toward the office of your ideological ally while saying: 'You have no power over us.' 200,000 free Hungarians understood perfectly," Karácsony said in a post on X.
The Budapest mayor posted a different video on his Facebook account showing the speech from another camera angle, showing Karácsony addressing the crowd while pointing toward Budapest's Carmelite monastery.
Some 200,000 people reportedly attended Saturday's Pride march in Budapest, making it the largest in the event's history, according to organisers.
The Hungarian government attempted to block the Pride event in March by amending its laws in what it claimed were concerns over the protection of minors, to much furore from Brussels and European and international LGBTQ+ organisations.
However, the Budapest municipality circumvented the restrictions by organising it as a municipal event rather than a public assembly.
Wilders led his PVV party to victory in Dutch parliamentary elections in November 2023. After months of coalition negotiations, he helped form a four-party right-wing government in May 2024, but withdrew from the coalition in early June due to disagreements over immigration policy.
The PVV is known for its anti-immigration platform and has faced criticism for inflammatory rhetoric regarding minority communities. Wilders is a political ally of Orbán and recently appeared as a keynote speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held in Hungary in May.
The accusation comes amid heightened scrutiny of alleged Nazi salutes following controversy over gestures made by Elon Musk at US President Donald Trump's inauguration on 20 January.
Musk placed his palm to his chest and extended his right arm toward a crowd twice during a post-inauguration rally, sparking debate over the nature of his actions.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) defines the Nazi salute as "raising an outstretched right arm with the palm down."
The organisation notes the gesture was "often accompanied by chanting or shouting 'Heil Hitler' or 'Sieg Heil'" in Nazi Germany and has been "utilised by neo-Nazis and white supremacists" since World War II.
However, the ADL said in a statement following the January incident that Musk made an "awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute."
