Socialists demand making self-governance constitutional right

Budapest, September 30 (MTI) – The right to self-governance should be included in the constitution, the Mayor of Szeged Laszlo Botka, of the opposition Socialists, said at a meeting marking the 25th anniversary of setting up Hungary’s system of local governments.

Botka said they also demand that the constitution should declare the independence of local government assets because the government can currently “seize” these without limitations.

Social services and aid should be transferred back to local governments and the state should give back the resources that have been drawn away. Botka said some 500 billion forints (EUR 1.6bn) more has been taken away from local governments than the debt services they had been affected by.

The state financing of local governments is currently carried out on the basis of subjective considerations and this should be replaced by a system of objective rules.

Only small villages’ educational institutions that they cannot finance should be run by the state, he added.

A country can function well only if the most important public services are organised locally and self-governance is not only the right of mayors and representatives but of the local community too, he said.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters