Budapest mayor candidate slams government, deputy mayor for alleged business ties with Russian group

Gergely Karácsony, opposition candidate for Budapest mayor, on Tuesday demanded that Alexandra Szalay-Bobrovniczky should be stripped of her post of deputy mayor, and quoted press reports suggesting that Szalay-Bobrovniczky’s husband has a joint venture with a Russian group that has supplied metro cars for the city.

According to Karácsony, the reports “explain why the government insisted on the Russian supplier, which tendered a worse and more expensive bid” and why “the city has not followed up on all the technical complaints” against the new trains.

“Budapest residents had to pay 9 billion forints more and put up with carriages without air conditioning just to make (ruling) Fidesz’s oligarchs even richer,” he added.

Karácsony called on Mayor István Tarlós to initiate that the municipal assembly should withdraw Szalay-Bobrovniczky from her post.

Gábor Kerpel-Fronius of the Momentum party said that the opposition, if its parties won the upcoming municipal elections, would ensure that “such public procurement projects are transparent and can be tracked” and that relevant contracts and supplier information are made public.

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Source: MTI