BREAKING – Mayor Karácsony’s urgent press briefing: Budapest may go bankrupt, public transport may be halved in H2 2025 – UPDATED

Mayor Gergely Karácsony Summer Olympic Games in Budapest Hungarian opposition
Photo: FB/Karácsony

We wrote last week that, based on a new Hungarian supreme court (Curia) decision, the 2025 budget of Budapest had been annulled. The reason for the dispute is the so-called solidarity contribution, which the government increased significantly, but the capital refused to pay and include in its budget. The government would like to impose a levy on the city’s accounts, which would collapse the budget and bankrupt Budapest.

Budapest may go bankrupt due to the solidarity contribution

According to 444.hu, Gergely Karácsony, the mayor of Budapest, held an extraordinary press conference this morning, saying that due to the 12-fold solidarity contribution, the operation of the capital is in danger. He cited multiple court and top court decisions that favour Budapest’s position on the issue of solidarity contribution, but the government refuses to consider them and demands HUF 51 billion (EUR 126 million) from the capital.

  • Curia, Hungary’s top court, annulled Budapest’s 2025 budget

Therefore, Budapest requested immediate legal protection from the court to avoid the Hungarian State Treasury‘s Wednesday levy. If the capital does not receive protection until then (as it regularly did before), they will lose HUF 12 billion (EUR 30 million) the day after tomorrow. As a result, they would not be able to fund public services in the second half of the year. For example, public transport, including multiple trams and metro services, would halt.

Budapest may halve public transport capacities

He said Budapest transferred more than HUF 32 billion (EUR 80 million) to the state budget and spent HUF 35 billion on public transport. The government has been fining Budapest for 5 years, but they managed to protect Budapesters from the Orbán cabinet’s anti-Budapest policies, Karácsony added. Now, they must take extraordinary actions to keep the capital operable.

Karácsony said he would start negotiating with the trade unions of the Budapest-owned companies about how to keep high-quality service and jobs, provided the court refuses to accept the mayor’s request for immediate legal protection. In response to a question, he said the capital may halve public transport capacities. He added that there is only so much money to save in that sector.

Budapest public transport BKK ticket validation easter timetable changes
Photo: BKK/FB

In response to another question, he said the court had 15 days to decide on the issue, and that they hoped for the best.

The solidarity contribution is a fund to which the Hungarian local governments transfer money, which the government then distributes between the poorer settlements. However, the calculation of the solidarity contribution sums and the distribution of the money lack transparency.

UPDATE 1: Dávid Vitézy: Karácsony’s announcement is just a distraction

Dávid Vitézy, the leader of the Podmaniczky group in the Budapest Municipal Council, said that Karácsony’s announcement was just a distraction. That is how the mayor would like to distract public attention from the corruption scandal of the Budapest Transport Company (BKV). He acknowledged that the city’s budget was in danger but added that they knew the sum of the solidarity contribution last December, so the mayor’s office should not have been surprised.

Vitézy said that on today’s transport committee session (a city council committee in which he sits as chairman) the financial report of the BKV received zero votes, so even the groups behind the mayor think something went wrong in the company.

UPDATE 2: Fidesz group leader Szentkirályi calls for audit of Budapest municipal companies

Alexandra Szentkirályi, the Fidesz group leader in the Budapest city assembly, has called for all companies operating under the metropolitan council of Budapest to be audited, given “all the scandals” around Budapest transport company BKV and “the city’s bankruptcy”.

Szentkiralyi noted in a post on Facebook on Monday that the ruling parties proposed auditing the city’s companies earlier this year, but this was rejected by “the left-liberal majority” of the assembly. “For some reason they don’t want locals to see clearly how the municipal businesses work,” she said. The ruling parties will now re-submit their proposal as “Budapest residents have a right to know what is going on” in those companies, the politician added.

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