Budapest on the brink of bankruptcy?

Ruling Fidesz’s Budapest leader Zsolt Láng said on Thursday that the deputy mayor of Budapest had admitted that the city’s leadership had brought Budapest to bankruptcy.

Láng said on Facebook that in 2019 when Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony took over the city from his predecessor Istvan Tarlos, reserves totalled 214 billion forints (EUR 560m).

“By now, the balance of payments shows minus 5.4 billion forints, in other words bankruptcy,” he added. He accused the city leaders of irresponsible management and “squandering the money under their responsibility”.

Earlier on Thursday, Deputy Mayor Ambrus Kiss described the 2024 budget of Budapest as the “budget of restructuring”, and said “finally we are hopefully over with the series of crises”.

Kiss said that the series started with the coronavirus pandemic, then came the energy crisis, followed by the crisis caused by inflation.

Mayor: City leadership insists on 2019 investment plan for Budapest area

Budapest’s leadership insists on the 2019 concept for the planned 5 billion euro investment in the Rákosrendező area of the capital, and a social consultation on the matter will be held next year, Gergely Karácsony, the city’s mayor, said on Friday. Karácsony slammed the government for choosing an investor in an interstate agreement before negotiating on what to implement, and he insisted that the issue enjoyed a broad professional and political consensus.

He said the state was involved in the investment as a financier and owner, but it should also involve the city’s leadership.

The mayor said the zone in question should be compact and green, with 8-10 thousand apartments and 30-40 hectares of public park.

The minister of construction and transport announced on Monday that Hungary’s government was in talks with the world’s top property developers on a 5 billion euro project that would transform the 130 hectare area into a “millennium city centre”. The would elevate Budapest to the ranks of modern global cities, Janos Lazar told a press conference. The initial assessment and depollution work would cost around 20 billion forints (EUR 52.8m), Lazar said, noting that the government had committed to carrying out around 1 billion euros worth of infrastructure investments.

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