Green party would help local governments

Opposition LMP on Friday said it wants local councils to be able to buy energy at capped prices.

Örs Tetlak, a board member of the green party and the deputy mayorf Erd, near Budapest, told a press conference that he expects that local councils will find themselves in a “dramatic” situation in what he said was likely to be a “brutal winter”.

LMP also wants local governments to be given back “the tax revenues that have been taken away from them in recent years” and for those local councils that cannot afford to pay their utility bills to receive support, Tetlak said.

All obstacles to the use of renewable energy should be eliminated and a social energy upgrade programme should be carried out, Tetlak said. He also called for a state-funded utility bill support scheme that is organised by local councils.

He criticised the government’s proposal to set up an application-based fund to help local councils, saying that this way whether or not certain localities receive support could depend on “the sympathy of a minister”.