Mayor Karácsony’s warning: Budapest will not have a budget in force from next Tuesday, assembly lacked quorum today
Change language:
Mayor Gergely Karácsony on Wednesday postponed a meeting of the Budapest Assembly. The body lacked quorum as 20 of the 33 councillors failed to attend.
New Budapest Assembly convened for next Monday
Karácsony noted that the municipality would have no budget in force from next Tuesday. The assembly was scheduled to make decisions on the matters today, he said, adding that the meeting is planned to be held on Monday. “Today, Hungary sent a man into space … but politics in the capital has hit a new low,” Karácsony said. “The two largest groups in the assembly are not doing their job.”
The municipality had “picked up the gauntlet” against a government politics that was pushing City Hall to burden people living and working in Budapest with the weight of government austerity. “They are trying to force us to curb and ruin public services.” The municipality had decided in 2023 to “get Budapest’s money back through political, social and legal means,” he said.
Recent negotiations with the government are a fruit of that approach, he said. “We see it as the result of a policy that said that we will not ruin the public services of the capital for political and short-term financial goals, and that we will protect the city’s autonomy with every means at our disposal,” he said.
Karácsony wants Budapest’s money back
Karácsony said the government had made the decision to “withdraw from austerity measures clearly at odds with the responsibility we all feel for the country’s capital.” “There is one more thing needed – that the party groups of the Budapest Assembly rise to the task and make the responsible decisions necessary in this tense situation, so that the negotiations with the government have actual results,” he said. “If we keep to the schedule, we can agree with the government on the ways in which we can get Budapest’s money back…”
Tisza slams Fidesz, Karácsony
The opposition Tisza party announced earlier on Wednesday that its councillors will stay away from the meeting.
“We’ve had enough of the Fidesz group, led by Alexandra Szentkirályi … hobbling every assembly with ideologically loaded pseudo-proposals and amendments that have nothing to do with Budapest citizens’ lives. Enough of the fact that it is impossible to have meaningful conversations on Budapest public transport, cultural life or green areas … because Szentkirályi has turned the most important decision-making body of Budapest into a cesspool of petty, sordid political games…” the statement said.