Budapest’s city assembly started work today but finding a majority will be difficult
The inaugural session of Budapest’s new city assembly starts today, and the Fidesz group is submitting eight proposals which include a motion to stop decisions being made solely by the mayor on his own authority, Alexandra Szentkirályi, the head of Fidesz’s group in the assembly, said on Friday.
Gergely Karácsony, she said on Facebook, sought to “curb the powers of the capital’s representatives further now that [Democratic Coalition leader] Ferenc Gyurcsány’s people no longer make up a majority.”
Ever since the pandemic broke out, the mayor “has decided the most important issues, bypassing the city assembly,” she said, adding that Fidesz wanted to return the rights of elected representatives in order to counter the mayor’s “excesses”.
Szentkirályi also said that the five committees currently working should be reduced to two, with fewer politicians carrying out the work for less money.
Meanwhile, she called on Karácsony to keep to his word and set up an anti-corruption outfit, adding that whereas he had vowed to create transparency and open operations up to the public, the past five years had been marred by “corruption scandals in the capital” and obfuscation.
The Democratic Coalition will continue to work for the development of the capital in the next five years, Sándor Szaniszló, the party’s group leader, said before the inaugural session of the new Budapest assembly.
Szaniszló said DK acknowledged the decision of mayor Gergely Karácsony not to nominate a deputy mayor as “no one would receive the necessary number of votes at the moment”. If in the next six months the mayor reached agreement with the Tisza party or the Two-Tailed Dog party and proposed a deputy mayor, DK would support them, he added.
He noted that Alexandra Szentkirályi had repeatedly said she wanted to work to the benefit of the city. DK, he said, therefore called on her to act as a go-between so that the government would stop “bleeding Budapest dry” and reduce the 75 billion forint solidarity tax and return the 90 billion forints taken from the city under various titles, Szaniszló added.
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Budapest City Council should only display the Hungarian flag, city flag and not the EU flag. Citizens of Budapest first loyalty should be to God, Family and Country and not to a foreign dictatorship. Nix the EU flag.