Budapest’s biggest scandal right now is the name of a street

Horn Gyula Promenade. Source: Google Maps

The Budapest City Assembly broke the law by naming a public area after Gyula Horn, the Socialist prime minister (1994-1998) who had been foreign minister in the dying days of the Communist regime and “participated in maintaining a totalitarian regime”, the government office of Budapest said on Tuesday.

Horn’s career “leaves no doubt” that he had been an active supporter of Hungary’s Communist dictatorship, the government office said, citing the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Based on the Academy’s position, the government office has asked the assembly to “terminate an unlawful situation” and rename Horn Gyula Walk in the city’s 13th district.

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According to Ambrus Kiss, Deputy Mayor of Budapest, the Government Office is not in a position to instruct the Municipality of Budapest. “The assembly does not want to give a new name to the promenade named after former Socialist prime minister Gyula Horn,” Telex quoted Mr Kiss as saying.

The naming of the promenade was initiated by the municipality. The Municipal Assembly of Budapest decided at the beginning of June last year to name the public space after the third prime minister of post-regime change Hungary.