The mayors of Budapest’s inner districts have united in warning the government that it must immediately begin filling vacant police posts, saying local authorities can no longer cope with the large numbers of threatening people and groups arriving in the capital from the countryside. They also said that some of these people exchanged empty bottles for cash before using the money to buy cheap, extraordinarily harmful drugs and alcohol. At present, the authorities are virtually powerless to deal with them.
They come from the countryside to make money and buy drugs
Dávid Vitézy, now the Minister for Transport, proposed – when he was still a Budapest council member and the MOHU bottle-return scheme was being introduced – that the Budapest municipality install bottle-collection bins in the inner districts. Not everyone, he argued, would seek out a redemption point where they could receive 50 forints for an empty mineral-water or soft-drink bottle.
The proposal was implemented, and the yellow bins still accept bottles today. However, while the initiative may have led to the collection of bottles, it may also have given a further boost to the presence of threatening individuals and groups on the streets.
The mayors of Ferencváros, Erzsébetváros, Józsefváros and Terézváros, as well as Újlipótváros, have joined the initiative launched by Imre László, the Democratic Coalition mayor of District XI. Among other demands, they are calling for more police officers, broader powers and additional funding to tackle the problem. According to the mayors, at least 3,000 police officers are missing from the streets, and they cannot be replaced with overtime payments or municipal resources, Blikk reports.
Meanwhile, Budapest as a whole is facing an increasingly serious social, mental-health and public-order crisis on its streets. The problem is particularly visible around railway stations and major transport hubs. In District XI, for example, complaints from residents have increased in recent months. The district says the bottle-return scheme is bringing increasing numbers of people to Budapest from the countryside in an attempt to make money by collecting bottles.
More drug users on the streets
The problem, however, is not confined to bottle collecting. District mayors say that more and more drug users are appearing on the streets, including people whose behaviour may be influenced by severe mental-health problems. Some spend the money earned from collecting bottles on alcohol or drugs, further undermining residents’ sense of safety.
The leaders of the inner districts say the emergence of cheap, new types of drugs is particularly alarming because they can trigger serious psychiatric problems among users. Keleti and Nyugati railway stations, Népliget, Blaha Lujza Square and several other busy transport hubs therefore require special attention, but there are not enough police officers to resolve the problems.
Long-term solutions are impossible through temporary redeployments. In an overstretched system suffering from staff shortages, any worker taken from one location will sooner or later be missed at their previous post. In addition, an effective support system is needed to address the social problems underlying homelessness and addiction.
Gergely Karácsony, the Mayor of Budapest, recently highlighted this point, noting that the problem has implications not only for public safety but also for health and social services. Most people cannot afford to pay the fines imposed on them in any case, and instead “convert” them into detention or community service.
Joint proposals submitted to the Government
The mayors have also drawn up a joint package of proposals. Among other measures, they would introduce a 30 per cent Budapest allowance for police officers serving in the capital to make the postings more attractive, while calling for a continuous police presence at problematic transport hubs.
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The municipalities are also seeking greater influence over the regulation of national tobacco shops and want to expand the scope for holding people accountable on the basis of CCTV footage.
The mayors further reported that municipal wardens and civil-guard patrols funded by district budgets have extremely limited powers. For example, they cannot even check people’s identities, meaning they have no way of knowing whether they have encountered someone who is wanted by the authorities.
The district leaders say that, alongside reinforcing the police, access to night shelters must also be made easier. They believe Budapest’s municipalities are no longer able to tackle the simultaneous problems of homelessness, addiction and public disorder using their own resources, and are therefore calling for immediate state intervention.
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I live in District 6 and I can confirm that this is a serious problem that has only gotten worse over the 9 years that I have lived in the area. The bottle scheme has proven to be a magnet for vagrants a they prowl the streets and gain access to buildings in search of bottles, dumping bins and making a mess. Drunks line shop entrances and take up benches after hours. Hordes of unsavory characters fill Nyugati, Oktogon, Blaha and other public areas making it feel less and less safe. We need more police officers with enhanced authority to keep the inner city safe.
In the time I used to live there Budapest felt like a tremendously safe city compared to many other capitals. It always had it’s slightly unsavoury underbelly, the immediate vicinity of the railway termini and Blaha were best avoided after dark, metro underpasses in particular were often a hellhole of drunk vagrants and there was a fair amount of homelessness visible in the city centre. However, at no point did I feel unsafe or threatened at any time of day or night.
If I understand it correctly the bottle refund scheme alone has had some negative consequences and seems to be attracting troubled individuals into the capital hunting for discarded bottles and cans on which to claim a refund? What am I missing? Bottle refund schemes haven’t caused similar effects elsewhere, they’re just an aspect of daily life.
More funding. They always want more money.
When did throwing more money (and more government) at a problem ever actually fix the problem?!?
How come these problems did not exist for decades, indeed centuries, despite there having been fewer police officers, with lower salaries, and less “funding” overall??
The problem is that we have become soft and weak. We indulge the dregs of society on account of their “human rights.” Guess what: It allows for the worst element to thrive.
We need to Bukele-ize the developed world. The human rights of the decent, upstanding, law-abiding citizens must take precedence, with extreme prejudice, over the human rights of scofflaws, transients, drunks, and hobos, let alone worse. Remove such elements from the society, period.
P.S. Abolish the bottle and can recycling. Most of us know it’s B.S. The stuff just gets shipped to the Far East where they dump it in landfills or burn it.