Budapest mayor frightens with no public transport and dark streets from March

Gergely Karácsony, the opposition mayor of Budapest, talked about the dark future of Hungary’s astonishing capital at a conference. He said that if Budapest went bankrupt, he could still look in the mirror since it would not be his fault. He added that the current crisis hit the Hungarian local governments hard. However, local politicians should not be blamed for the financial crisis it causes in the settlements. If Budapest goes bankrupt, public transport will stop, there will be no heating in the public institutions and the streets will remain dark after sunset.

At a conference of the Republikon Institute, Karácsony said there was no answer to the question of whether there was still self-governance in Hungary. “I would not be able to answer the question whether there was a democracy in Hungary or not, but the latter is more likely”, he expressed his thoughts. Karácsony said there were multiple laws narrowing their manoeuvring abilities.

Karácsony said the local governments’ reactions to the coronavirus pandemic, the Ukrainian refugee crisis, or the energy crisis were better than the government’s in many respects. However, the current crisis poses the hardest task for all of them, szmo.hu wrote.

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“I do not know whether we will survive 2023”, he said. If he looks at the prices of the Dutch gas stock exchange, he would say they have no chance. Without government help, Budapest would go bankrupt by March. Provided such a scenario came true, it would not be the fault of the mayors or the local councils.

Tamás Soproni, the opposition mayor of Budapest’s 6th district, said he felt as if he had been in a new season of the Black Mirror. The future becomes more and more dystopic. He said the government centralised and neither likes opposition mayors nor the idea of self-governance. Karácsony added that they wanted to serve the locals, while the government aimed to rule.

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Fidesz: High time Karácsony came up with solutions, not excuses

It is high time that Gergely Karácsony, the mayor of Budapest, came up with solutions “instead of excuses”, Fidesz said on Friday, MTI wrote. “Yet, again we’re at the point where the mayor constantly complains that Budapest is going bankrupt and will not survive 2023,” the ruling party’s Budapest chapter said on Facebook, adding that after three years in charge it was time for the mayor to take responsibility.

Fidesz accused Karácsony of wasting Budapest taxpayers’ money for the last three years, referring to the HUF 5 billion (EUR 11,970,770.16) overshoot for renovating Chain Bridge and 1 billion (EUR 2,394,154.03) spent on advertising among other money wastage. It also said Budapest had paid hundreds of millions of forints in fines because it had fouled up public procurements. Meanwhile, delays to investments also increased their expenses, the Facebook post added.

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Source: szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu, MTI