Mayor: Chinese poisonous chemical hub will be built in South Budapest

The opposition leader of the Hungarian capital believes that the danger of creating a Chinese mega poison hub in South Budapest remained acute despite cabinet promises.

According to 24.hu, Gergely Karácsony said in a Facebook post published yesterday that the Orbán cabinet would like to deceive the capital citizens. Orbán and his brethren are still working on creating a Chinese poison store in the Southern districts of Budapest and Gyál, a suburb of the Hungarian capital. The main goal is to create a “poison depot” in Soroksár, Budapest’s 23rd district.

Direkt36, a Hungarian investigative news outlet, said in June that Hungary could become a European hub for Chinese chemicals. They wrote their article using leaked documents. Later, the project was denied by government officials. The outrage of the mayors concerned, especially the mayor of Soroksár, was considerable. The government-backed but officially non-aligned Ferenc Bese said he would do everything he could to prevent such an investment in his district.

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Three signs that the government has not given up building the chemical hub in Budapest

Direkt36 wrote then that a business circle attached to Antal Rogán plans to create the hub for the Chinese. The chemicals would be transported to Hungary by railway and would supply the battery production plants from here. PM Orbán called the initiative unfounded in the parliament.

Karácsony and the Council of Budapest decided to create a forest on the territory concerned instead of a chemical hub. However, in his recent post, he wrote that several signs indicate the government has not given up carrying out the plan for the chemical hub. Karácsony believes such an investment would endanger the health and environment of the Budapest citizens.

He said the decree about the projects of special national importance was modified, increasing the development area in Soroksár and Gyál considerably. The aim is property development for logistics and general purposes. The place is as big as the joint territory of the 6th and 5th districts. Karácsony believes that the cabinet is silent about the initiative because it is related to the Chinese chemical hub project.

But Karácsony noted other signs. One is that Erkin Tuniyaz, the deputy secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xinjiang Committee and chairman of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, paid a secret visit to Budapest. He was accompanied by Chinese businessmen who signed an agreement of cooperation with the China-Europe Commerce and Logistics Park. We wrote about that visit HERE.

Furthermore, Soroksár’s mayor has not yet signed the forestation decision of the Budapest Council.

Karácsony identified those three as worrying signs pointing towards the continuation of the Chinese chemical hub project. He added he was committed to killing such an initiative.