The lord mayor of Budapest fights back: municipalities serve people better than the government

Those who follow the political debates in Hungary know that, following the 2019 municipal elections when Budapest chose the opposition to lead the city, the government is in a fight with the Lord Mayor of the capital, Gergely Karácsony. That is mostly because he can potentially become the leader of the alliance of the opposition parties in 2022.

The battlefields of this fight are all over Budapest from the renovation of the Chain Bridge, the government’s budget cuts affecting mostly the capital, to the different development projects of the government in Budapest Karácsony and his team does not agree with or the bicycle lanes they created during the coronavirus epidemic in spring.

Hungary’s municipalities are serving the public more efficiently in the current economic and social crisis caused by the novel coronavirus epidemic than the central government, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony said in a message to the Socialist Party’s online congress on Saturday.

The municipal authorities may play a major role in managing the crisis, even if the government makes every possible effort to hinder their work, Karácsony said on the Socialists’ Facebook page.

The municipalities led by opposition parties demonstrate the benefits of social governance which “is a great hope for Hungary and a serious threat to the government”, he said.

Karácsony, who is also co-leader of the Socialist ally Parbeszed party, called on the Socialists to

put an end to their internal disputes.

The Socialist party is the sole opposition force to pursue a Social Democratic policy, he said, adding that there would be no opposition victory without a Social Democratic party.

Source: MTI