Local governments in Hungary

Budapest mayor outraged on government proposal

Gergely Karácsony mayor Budapest

Hungary’s local councils do not support the proposal by the government aimed at the full-scale and mandatory nationalisation of outpatient care, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony said on Tuesday.

“We can’t support a proposal that hasn’t even been discussed with us,” Karácsony told a press conference after a meeting of the alliance of local governments MÖSZ. “Even though the state secretary didn’t even listen to the local government alliance’s position during the talks at the Interior Ministry, MOSZ is prepared for further consultations.” Karácsony said centralisation would not provide a solution to the health-care sector’s lack of resources or shortage of professionals. “The problem isn’t the lack of centralisation, but rather the lack of adequate wages and shortage of professionals,” the mayor said.

He said the proposal would also cut a significant amount of funding from health care, arguing that local councils currently supplement state funding for their own outpatient clinics, which in Budapest’s case can cost up to 20 billion forints (EUR 50.0m) a year. He noted that the government in 2019 signed an agreement with the Budapest city council under which Budapest had done everything it could for the construction of the stadium needed to host the 2023 World Athletics Championships in exchange for the government’s commitment to spending 50 billion forints on the upgrade of outpatient care in the city over a period of five years.

“We didn’t conclude the agreement to then have the government nationalise clinics,” Karácsony said. “The proposal is effectively a violation of this agreement.”

University of Óbuda
Read alsoEnergy crisis: drastic measures, draconic decorative lighting rigour at Budapest university

Meanwhile, Gödöllő Mayor György Gémesi, who heads MÖSZ, announced that the alliance was calling for a national energy summit to be held at the end of November, adding that the summit should involve service providers as well as local council and government representatives.

The aim of the summit is to bring together proposals that could help local councils weather the current energy crisis, he said.

food store spar inflation price hungary (2)
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Crisis: no more trolleys, much fewer trams in Hungary’s 2nd biggest city

Debrecen public transport trolleys trams

Not only Hungarian households and universities struggle with the skyrocketing energy prices but also the local governments. Many of them made draconic cuts in the different service types they provide for their citizens from spas to public transport. The latest drastic decision came from Debrecen, Hungary’s second biggest city after Budapest, led by a Fidesz-KDNP coalition for decades. Below you may read the details.

The local transport company (DKV) announced drastic measures due to the soaring inflation and the growing energy and fuel prices. Some will enter into effect from 14 November concerning trams, trolleys and even buses in Debrecen. The changes concern almost every citizen living in the second biggest Hungarian municipality, iho.hu wrote.

The leadership of the Hungarian city where the German BMW Group plans to build the world’s first fossil-free plant decided on implementing drastic measures. According to the statement of the Debrecen transport company, fuel prices increased by 86 percent in 2021. Meanwhile, electricity will cost 2.5 times more in 2023 than in 2022. The company highlighted they would not dismiss their employees and most of the modifications in the public transport timetable do not concern peak periods.

University of Óbuda
Read alsoEnergy crisis: drastic measures, draconic decorative lighting rigour at Budapest university

As part of cutting back energy consumption, from 14 November, they will reduce the frequency of two trams, five trolleys and 20 bus lines.

Trams

Debrecen will halve the number of trams commuting on lines 1 and 2 outside the peak periods. Scheduled headways will rise to 15 minutes on weekends.

Trolleys

From 14 November, the scheduled headways of all trolleys will be doubled outside business hours. Moreover, in the case of trolley nr 3, every second vehicle will run in a shortened route outside peak times. Furthermore, trolley number 3A will no longer commute from next Monday. Passengers may take buses nr 19, 22, 22Y, 24 and 24Y instead of the trolleys from mid-November.

Buses

The frequency will be reduced in the case of the buses at the weekends and outside peak periods.

January will mark the deathblow of Debrecen trolleys

From 1 January 2023, all trolleys in Debrecen will be shut down to save energy and electricity. That means a network running for 37.5 years will stop its operation next year. On the weekends, buses will replace both trams. On weekdays of school holidays, replacement buses will carry passengers between Doberdó utca–Kálvin tér–Doberdó utca (tram nr 2). But tram nr 1 will operate as usual.

Iho.hu writes that the trolley bus network of Debrecen may end its operation for good on 31 December.

 

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Opposition-led localities demand something Orbán will not do

Opposition-mayors-Hungary

The leaders of 18 localities have signed an open letter to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, calling on him to convene a national energy summit and start talks with local authorities on providing aid to weather the energy crisis.

Local authorities are in dire economic straits, the letter said, and the government should act swiftly to ensure that public services are maintained. The energy crisis and soaring prices have driven a cost of living crisis that has resulted in an increasing number of people turning to local authorities for welfare support, even as the municipalities themselves are fighting to maintain basic services, the letter said. The national energy summit would be an opportunity to table solutions to the problem, it said.

The signatories, none of whom belong to the ruling parties, said they were aware that “the state budget is also in a difficult situation, for both domestic and external reasons”. At the same time, “the government is in talks on supporting church-run schools, but there has been no mention of maintaining state-run kindergartens and creches.”

Government support could be funded by handing back local authorities’ tax revenues taken away from them under a government decree, the letter said, referring to a government decision to strip municipalities of their corporate tax revenues in 2020. It could also be funded from the extra profit flowing into state coffers from higher energy prices, it said.

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The mayors are also initiating talks on the price of electricity produced in the Paks nuclear plant, saying the electricity produced there for 12 forints/kWh is sold to cities at over 400 forints/kWh (EUR 0.94). While the nuclear power plant’s electricity output could satisfy the demand of public services, “we think it is unacceptable for a state-owned company to profiteer from a plant built as a community investment to the detriment of Hungarian localities.”

Avoiding a social crisis and keeping Hungarian operational are a national interest, the letter said.

The letter was signed by the mayors of Budapest, Baja, Balmazújváros, Budakalász, Budaörs, Érd, Gödöllő, Hódmezávásárhely, Kazincbarcika, Nyírbátor, Pécs, Pomáz, Salgótarján, Tatabánya, Szeged, Szentendre, Szombathely and Vác.

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Green party would help local governments

Local governments in Hungary Municipal Council of Budapest

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”.

Tram Budapest public transport
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Budapest’s most famous Christmas fair to be held in 2022 but will be very different

Christmas Fair Budapest

Budapest Brand, the previous organiser of Hungary’s probably most famous Christmas fair, did not receive the permission of the local government of Budapest’s 5th district.

Budapest’s central Christmas Fair to be held

According to hvg.hu, in 2022, the organisers of the Advent Bazilika event will run the Christmas Fair on Vörösmarty Square. That is because the leadership of the local government could not reach an agreement with Budapest Brand, the fair’s organisers last year. Meanwhile, Advent Bazilika got the approval in principle.

In a statement they said they conducted fair negotiations with the Budapest Brand. However, the company could organise the fair only if they signed a two-year-long contract, which the local government refused to do. The local government added they wanted an agreement that serves the locals’ interests and facilitates mutual satisfaction and success. 

Budapest Christmas Markets Vörösmarty Square_Budapest
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Professional organisers

The Advent Bazilika event has been chosen as Europe’s best twice. This year, the event’s organisers will set up and run the Christmas fair on Budapest’s iconic Vörösmarty Square.

Here is their last post from last year’s Advent Bazilika event showing that they are professionals, so nobody should be concerned about the quality of this year’s central Christmas Fair:

The local government hopes this year’s fair will be worthy of the event’s traditions and the 5th district. The revenues will be spent on maintaining the public spaces in the downtown, the 5th district cleared. Before, the Municipal Council of the capital did not do so with the incomes of the fair.
Why can the 5th district decide on the issue? That is because the government modified the relevant laws and took several squares and public spaces in Budapest from the opposition-led municipal council, giving them to the 5th district. One of those was the Vörösmarty Square. Therefore, from now on, the 5th district’s local council will decide who will organise Hungary’s most famous Christmas Fair.

Hungarian government offering partnership to municipalities

municipalities hungary

The government offers a partnership to municipalities and “will talk to everybody to ensure that fundamental public services are continued” in the next year, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office said on Monday.

Gergely Gulyás told a press conference after the general assembly of the federation of cities with county rights (MJVSZ) that the government expected its partners to economise “in return” with their resources.

Gulyás said Hungary’s 25 largest cities would face an extra burden totalling at 135 billion forints (EUR 131.7m) in increased energy costs next year. “This is in fact a result of major European disputes about the war and especially about the energy sanctions launched in response to the war,” he said.

The government and local authorities will have to rely on each other in this situation, Gulyas said, and asked local councils to reduce their “extra costs” but maintain “essential public services”. They would still need government assistance, he added, and said the government would talk to the municipalities and help out.

“There is only one solution on the long run: energy sanctions should be replaced by a policy aimed at stabilising energy prices in Europe,” Gulyás said.

Gulyás called for “sensible” European policies, which “do not favour Russia, the aggressor, through soaring gas prices, but which hurt the aggressor and cause no harm to Europe”, and added that “so far the energy sanctions have proven otherwise.”

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Read alsoHungarian local governments in big trouble, Budapest may also have a freeze break

Gulyás noted that national energy company MVM had recently offered municipalities various deals in which they could pay “different prices” for their energy with no obligation to pay several months in advance, but added that “issues around prices have not yet been fully settled”.

Károly Szita, the head of the federation, said municipalities should work to “use the least possible amount of energy next year, but in any case less energy than in 2022”. He said fundamental services should remain, but some municipal institutions could stay closed for the winter months. He suggested talks between the government and ailing municipalities to start in the second half of October or November.

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Hungarian local governments in big trouble, Budapest may also have a freeze break

karácsony

Municipalities are unable to cope with soaring energy prices, and without state support, a “freeze break” may come. At the end of the year, the municipality of the capital will certainly have unpaid bills. According to Mayor Gergely Karácsony, other municipalities will face a similar situation.

Jánoshida is in big trouble

Béla Eszes, the mayor of Jánoshida (Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county), said the following at a discussion of the Association of Hungarian Municipalities on Friday:

“There are not enough trees in Hungary to allow all municipalities and families that have been using gas heating to switch to wood. But even if there were, gas-fired systems have been installed in recent years in modernisation projects funded by tenders. But they cannot afford the market price of gas and electricity,” Népszava.hu writes.

No electricity contract

Two years ago, the village of 2,500 inhabitants replaced its old wood-burning boiler with a modern gas heating system in the kindergarten and the day-care centre for the elderly. Now, however, it turns out that they cannot pay the gas bill, the article says. The 100-person kindergarten cannot be vacated, but the elderly are being moved to the village hall.

But they cannot sign the electricity contract either, because the price of HUF 65 (EUR 0.16) per kilowatt hour has now jumped to HUF 380 (EUR 0.95), so the cost of street lighting, so far at HUF 3.5 million (EUR 8,720), would be HUF 20 million (EUR 49,800) for a year, while their income from business tax is no more than HUF 40 million (EUR 100,000).

People resort to social assistance

But there is also a big problem with public catering: the state subsidy for this had to be supplemented by HUF 10 million (EUR 24,920) a year, now, that sum has to be increased to HUF 20 million (EUR 49,800), even though prices have already been raised four times. The burden on families can no longer be borne, and they can no longer afford inflation and rising heating costs. People who have never applied for social assistance before are now applying for it.

Until now, an average of 200 families out of the 1,000 households in Jánoshida have registered for the 200 cubic metres of social firewood, and this year, that number has grown to 400.

Coercive measures – there is no Plan B

“Municipalities are trying to get ahead by various coercive measures, such as closing swimming pools, reducing decorative lighting, and dropping non-mandatory services,” said György Gémesi, Mayor of Gödöllő, President of the Association of Hungarian Municipalities at the meeting. “Municipalities are unable to afford the escalating energy prices, and if there is no public aid, there will be a freeze break. There is no Plan B,” said Gémesi.

Read alsoEighteenfold gas price rise: will Budapest’s baths close?

Budapest vs government conflict enters détente phase?

Opposition mayor Gergely Karácsony and minister Tibor Navracsics Budapest

Tibor Navracsics, the minister for regional development and the uptake of EU funds, on Monday met Gergely Karacsony, the mayor of Budapest, and they agreed on re-estabilshing the regional development forum for Budapest and Pest County. At a press conference after the meeting, Navracsics said he hoped their dialogue “would bear fruit in the majority of cases”.

“But there will be conflicts from time to time as well, because there will be instances where interests of the capital and the government do not coincide,” Navracsics added. He said that hopefully the regional development forum for Budapest and the surrounding Pest County would be re-established, following a meeting of Pest County mayors last week at which a related proposal was made.

Navracsics said he and Karácsony reviewed ongoing and planned operative programmes and discussed possible ways to cooperate on their implementation. They also discussed the possibility of jointly implementing future projects that would serve the interests of both the government and the city of Budapest, the minister said.

Karácsony told the same press conference that Monday’s meeting could signal the beginning of a good working relationship between partners.

“The municipality of Budapest has an interest in ensuring that Hungary can access the EU funds

it is entitled to and that the debate over the rule of law in Hungary can be settled in a satisfactory manner,” the mayor said.

Karácsony said that Budapest has an interest “in addressing the situation of local governments” in respect of the rule of law. He added that working in partnership with local governments was necessary to utilise EU funds effectively.

He welcomed re-establishing the regional development forum for coordinating development proposals made by the government and the city of Budapest. “It is also in the interest of the central region and Budapest to expand partnership between the city, the government and the agglomeration. Issues such as transport, the drinking water network and waste removal can only be tackled if settlements in the agglomeration are treated as a single unit,” Karacsony said.

Karácsony said he pledged Budapest’s “strong commitment” to objectives set forth by the European Union and the government. “We agree with the statement made by the prime minister’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, that the EU’s recovery fund should be used in its entirety to ensure Hungary’s energy independence,” he said. The Budapest municipality’s goal is to achieve full energy independence by 2030, meaning that the city’s public utility works should operate on energy they produce, Karácsony said.

“But to ensure this we need the EU funds,”

he said.

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Local governments and NGOs to receive the EU funds in Hungary?

money euro

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on Thursday, calling on member states to cooperate in preventing fraud harming the EU budget, and urging strict control of the EU recovery funds.

In a resolution adopted at the EP plenary session with 437 votes in favour, 94 against and 39 abstentions, MEPs called on the European Commission to fulfil its duties and engage more effectively with severe violations of the principles of the rule of law in some member states. The resolution welcomed the rule of law mechanism launched against Hungary last year, and called on the EC to consider doing the same against other member states similarly running afoul of the principle.

The resolution proposed that

if the Hungarian and Polish governments failed to fulfil all requirements for access to EU funds, the EC should temporarily handle EU resources in cooperation with local governments and civil organisations.

While the resolution acknowledged the efforts of Ukraine’s neighbours in accepting refugees since the start of the war, it said EU funds could not be disbursed to countries that fail to comply with the rulings of the European Court of Justice and do not acknowledge the supremacy of EU law. The MEPs expect a new control mechanism and preventive measures regarding the 1.8 billion euros to be disbursed in the 2021-2027 financial cycle.

They also called on “the main beneficiaries of the EU cohesion funds” such as Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria to join the initiative launched to prevent and investigate fraud of the recovery and resilience fund implemented to offset the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

In response, Fidesz MEPs said the resolution’s rapporteur was Momentum MEP Katalin Cseh, who “is involved in a severe case of fraud”, which they said undermined the credibility of the European Parliament.

MEP Andor Deli said the resolution contained “the usual ideologically motivated attacks against Hungary and Poland”. For this reason, he said, Fidesz’s MEPs voted against it.

Hungary was the first country to sign an agreement with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, Deli said. It has brought charges in 67 percent of the cases recommended by the EU’s anti-fraud body OLAF, nearly double the EU average of 35 percent, he said.

Government discusses development of Budapest suburbs with mayors

navracsics

Tibor Navracsics, the minister for regional development and the uptake of European Union funds, on Tuesday, met mayors of localities near Budapest, to discuss development opportunities and restarting a development forum for Budapest suburbs.

Navracsics praised the proposal of István Szabó, the head of the Pest County Assembly, to revive the regional development forum to discuss common issues and developmental concepts with Budapest as “very progressive”.

Budapest and the surrounding Pest County have “close and stormy relations”, Navracsics said. While Budapest’s GDP per capita is 153 percent of EU average, the county’s is at 59 percent, he said. While the development of Budapest is a priority, the surrounding areas are “inextricably linked to Budapest in everyday life”, and must be taken into consideration, he said.

The new forum would enable participants to harmonise long-term goals and development projects, he said.

Navracsics started a series of consultations two weeks ago with a view to renewing the policy framework for regional development policy.

As we wrote earlier, support available for local councils will increase by 95 billion forints (EUR 238m) next year, Finance Minister Mihály Varga said on Tuesday, details HERE.

woman, home, relax, homeoffice
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This Hungarian city may introduce the 4-day workweek

woman, home, relax, homeoffice

As we reported before, the Magyar Telekom Group has been testing the introduction of the 4-day workweek. Now, a Hungarian city, Szombathely, has raised the same idea. The justification for the proposal is that the introduction of a 4-day workweek would increase the efficiency of workers.

Szombathely has raised an innovative idea

The municipality of Szombathely is working on the introduction of a four-day working week, and it is expected to decide by the end of the summer on the conditions under which working hours can be reduced, Liner.hu reports.

The current plans are not to introduce it overnight, but only one proposal has been received, which the Commission argues is worth introducing because it would increase the efficiency of workers.

Less working days, same job, same salary

“It is about giving local government employees one more day of rest while doing the same amount of work, so that they can work more productively and efficiently in those four days. We are now looking into the possibility of this and we will decide in September whether or not to launch this trial run,” said Deputy Mayor Győző László.

According to the proposal, the new work schedule would be introduced for a six-month period at the municipality, after which a decision could be made on its continuation, atv.hu writes.

Still in the preparatory phase

“At the moment we are in the preparatory phase, which means we are looking at the legal, work organisation and other possibilities to see if this idea is a good one and if it can be implemented. The proposal itself is to look at a six-month trial run from September,” the deputy mayor added.

It is not yet known what decision will be taken in the capital of Vas county. There are still two months until September, during which time they would like to examine the consequences from all points of view. In Hungary, there are already jobs in the market sector where employees only have to work four days a week.

According to an earlier article of ours, Magyar Telekom will launch a representative national survey which will be available online for everyone in July. The aim is to find out what employers and employees in the country think about the innovative solution.

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Support for local councils to increase next year, says Hungarian finance minister

City of Szécsény, Hungary

Support available for local councils will increase by 95 billion forints (EUR 238m) next year, Finance Minister Mihály Varga said on Tuesday.

Varga told a press conference after addressing the general meeting of the alliance of cities with county-seat status that the central budget allocation for local councils will total 969 billion forints next year and the councils will have access to some 4,000 billion forints as a whole.

The aim is to make the Hungarian economy and the budget of municipalities crisis resistant even under the current circumstances involving a war in the neighbouring country, Varga said.

Károly Szita, the mayor of Kaposvár, in south-west Hungary, and president of the alliance, told the press conference that the participants had asked government support from Varga for local councils that will be unable to generate enough income to pay for increased energy charges.

basic income hungary finance
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LMP official challenges Karácsony’s view on opposition woes

Gergely Karácsony, the mayor of Budapest, has got his analysis of the opposition’s election woes wrong, according to Péter Ungár, parliamentary leader of the opposition LMP party.

As we wrote earlier today, four Budapest constituencies held by-elections on Sunday, with three going to candidates of the ruling party and one to the opposition, the National Election Office (NVI) said late on Sunday, details HERE.

Commenting on a “disappointing” outcome in Sunday’s by-election, Ungar said on Facebook that whereas Karacsony got it right that voters had punished the opposition for its performance since the April 3 general election, he said the pre-election record of the opposition was hardly brilliant either.

“Given Karácsony’s irredeemable merits in devising the pre-April strategy, he should have allowed his ‘analyst self’ more time to surface before issuing new directives,” Ungár said.

Ungár also disputed Karácsony’s view that voters wanted “much more opposition party unity”, insisting that the opposition had enjoyed one million more votes when there was rivalry between them.

Budapest by-elections yield 3 ruling party, 1 opposition victory

Four Budapest constituencies held by-elections on Sunday, with three going to candidates of the ruling party and one to the opposition, the National Election Office (NVI) said late on Sunday.

In the 5th district of Budapest, Gergő Nagy of the ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrats (KDNP) garnered over 70 percent of the vote, winning the mandate over Benjámin Fábián, the candidate of the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK), Momentum, LMP and the Socialists, who won 27 percent.

In the 7th district, András Ripka of Fidesz-KDNP won with 45 percent of the vote over Kenim Martin Jenei of the DK, Jobbik, Socialists, LMP and Párbeszed (28 percent).

The 8th district gave the mandate to Fidesz-KDNP’s Judit Gondos (63 percent), with László Pityo as runner-up (35 percent), who was supported by the opposition DK, Jobbik, Momentum, the Socialists and LMP.

László Vasvári, the candidate of the DM, LMP, Momentum, Jobbik, Socialist and Párbeszéd parties, won in the 4th district with over 47 percent of the vote, with Fidesz-KDNP’s Fruzsina Drabant garnering 40 percent.

As we wrote earlier, Fidesz to propose holding EP, municipal elections on same day, details HERE.

Fidesz to propose holding EP, municipal elections on same day

A proposal on holding the European parliamentary and municipal elections in Hungary on the same day will be submitted to lawmakers next Tuesday, Máté Kocsis, ruling Fidesz’s group leader, has said.

Holding the two elections in 2024 on the same day is expected to save 9-10 billion forints (EUR 23-25m) and will require amending the constitution,

Kocsis said.

The Fidesz group will also table proposals regarding rules for MPs joining and quitting a parliamentary group and on reducing the length of parliamentary speeches, he said.

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Here are the details of the government’s new “extra profit” tax

basic income hungary finance

The cabinet has decided to set up a fund for protecting the cap on utility bills and is introducing a tax on extra profits to finance it, Márton Nagy, the minister of economic development, said in an interview to public radio on Sunday. This year the fund will be worth 800 billion forints (EUR 2.04bn), while next year it will reach 1,000 billion forints, he added.

The details of the decision will be published in the Hungarian Gazette at the weekend, he said. Nagy said the new tax on banks, energy and trading companies and airlines, among others, would be temporary and targeted. Banks and multinationals have made big profits on the back of rising interest rates and prices, and they must pay their share of the public burden, he added.

Companies will be monitored to ensure that they don’t pass on the cost of the tax to consumers,

he said.

Nagy said ministry budgets are being cut by 10 percent, with savings of 581 billion forints expected this year and 500 billion the next.

Also savings of 1,150 billion forints will be made in 2022-2023 by rescheduling and postponing certain public investments, he added. A further decision will be made regarding price caps on certain foods and fuels which expire on July 1, depending on the rate of inflation — which, he added, had not yet peaked in respect of the products in question.

Meanwhile, financial support packages will be focused on households, Nagy said, noting that

local councils and businesses would no longer enjoy government subsidies.

Related savings are targeted at over 2,000 billion forints per year, with a view to hitting the budget deficit target of 4.9 percent of GDP this year and 3.5 percent in 2023.

A top government priority remains to protect full employment and maintain the purchasing power of pensions, family benefits and the cap on household utility bills, Nagy said.

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Massive increase in the price of tickets to Lake Balaton

balaton_sound_beach_fun

We can still swim in the Hungarian sea for free in several villages on the shores of Lake Balaton. However, the number of these places is decreasing rapidly as more and more towns are introducing tickets for those who want to bathe in the lake there.

Out of the 40 beaches at Lake Balaton, 20 are now only accessible for a fee. As 168.hu reported, eight Balaton beaches introduced an entrance fee last year, but there is still no information on these plans for this year. However, one thing is for sure, and it is that in many places, the entrance fees will be more expensive.

25% increase in entrance fees

In the last 2 years, due to the epidemiological emergency, local authorities and operators were not able to raise the entrance fees. Now, several places have indicated that they can no longer keep the same prices,

some of them will have to charge people 25% more during the season.

There are ~50 open beaches around Lake Balaton this year, with around 80% of them on the southern shore. The Democratic Coalition party (Demokratikus Koalíció) would like all municipalities to have free beaches due to the fact that many people can hardly afford a holiday at Balaton.

Free beaches in every town?

As we can read in the article of 168.hu, the president of the Balaton Association said that it is not feasible to have a free beach in every town on the shore of Lake Balaton. One of the reasons for this is that many villages and towns are struggling with a lack of space.

What is more, making paid beaches free of charge would be a financial burden for the municipalities.

Dániel Balassa, the mayor of Szigliget, said that the beach in Szigliget can accommodate 100,000 people a year, which generates a significant income for the municipality and is also an extremely important revenue for infrastructure and operation.

Balaton during the pandemic and price increase now

According to Pénzcentrum, in 2020, the first year of the epidemic, there were some municipalities that increased the price of adult tickets by 60% because the municipalities or municipal enterprises that ran the beaches based their prices on the fact that the restrictions related to the epidemic alone will reduce the expected traffic at all beaches. Meanwhile, the additional tasks will significantly increase the workload and associated costs.

Since the state of emergency was introduced, beaches have not been allowed to increase entrance fees. However, this year, we can expect higher ticket prices at many beaches. According to ATV, one beach is raising its prices by 25%, but there are also reports of a Balaton coastal municipality that would raise ticket prices by 50%.

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Congestion charge to be introduced in Budapest!?

Budapest traffic car drive Danube

The green LMP party wants the rapid implementation of strong measures to reduce car traffic in Budapest, and advocates the introduction of a congestion charge as well as a car-free embankment on the Pest side of the city, a party lawmaker said on Friday.

Bernadett Bakos said the partial closure to car traffic along the embankment was a half-hearted solution, and she called for whole of the banks of the Danube in Pest to be made pedestrian- and bike-friendly.

She also rejected the Budapest mayor’s insistence that the congestion charge would be untimely, adding that Gergely Karácsony’s had made the charge a plank of his election manifesto.

“It would be high time for at least one impact study, you would think,”

she said.

The charge should be graduated to reflect when congestion and air pollution are higher, and revenues raised should be used for public transport, Bakos said. Also, a plan is needed to dampen traffic throughout the city, she added.

She noted that a congestion charge was temporarily introduced in Stockholm only to be confirmed later by a referendum.

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