Mayor Karácsony: Budapest residents ‘stood up for their city’ in public survey

The residents of Budapest have stood up for their city, and for themselves with a total of 136,000 of them stating their opinion on the city’s affairs in a survey, Mayor Gergely Karácsony said on Monday.

The mayor said on Facebook that Budapest’s first-ever online survey dubbed the “residents’ meeting” has been concluded and its results are to be published on Tuesday.

“This is the biggest such survey in Budapest’s history with the participation of more than nine percent of the city’s residents eligible to vote,” Karácsony said.

The mayor said that the Budapest survey had been thoroughly different from the government’s National Consultation public surveys because the Budapest survey had “indeed asked for the residents’ opinion whereas the government’s surveys had deceived them”. He added that participation in the Budapest survey had been almost twice as high as in an online National Consultation drive.

“It is clear that the opinion of Budapest residents can simply not be ignored anymore,” Karácsony said, adding that decisions on matters affecting the city’s future would be taken “in line with the will of its residents”. Among the issues, he noted the payment of taxes to the central government and transport on Chain Bridge after completion of its overall renovation.