American Mayors Are Looking to Budapest for Democracy Tips — That’s Not Nothing

When the mayors of Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, and San Antonio flew to Bratislava, Slovakia last week to sign a democracy alliance with European counterparts, the White House called it a publicity stunt. That reaction is worth examining — because the stunt label doesn’t quite explain the substance of what actually happened.

The Pact of Free Cities is not a new organization. It was founded in 2019 by the mayors of Bratislava, Budapest, Prague, and Warsaw — four Eastern European capital cities that had spent years navigating the political pressure of national governments hostile to their relatively liberal urban constituencies. Over time, the Pact expanded to include Amsterdam, Barcelona, Kyiv, London, and Paris, among roughly forty cities total. The core mission is straightforward: share strategies for protecting democratic institutions and civil liberties when the national government isn’t interested in helping.

Ten American cities joined that network this month. The meeting took place in the Hall of Mirrors at Bratislava’s Primate’s Palace — a setting that, whatever you think of the politics, is not the backdrop for a casual photo op.

Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval was direct about the motivation. He told reporters he joined because of Trump administration actions that he described as causing democratic institutions and values to backslide, and because of what he characterized as the deliberate unraveling of long-standing international relationships. Lacey Beaty, the mayor of Beaverton, Oregon, flew nine time zones for the meeting and said the experience underlined that challenges American cities are facing — federal funding cuts, restrictions on local autonomy, pressure on civil liberties — are the same ones European cities have been managing for years.