Orbán has been bothered from the very beginning by self-determination, that local governments can decide for themselves what is important for people living there. The Fidesz government, also referred to as the state, does not represent Hungarian people, but the business interests of their buddies, and they are so scared of local governments doing a good job at serving locals that it makes their blood run cold.
Viktor Orbán's campaign against local governments began in 2012, including the nationalization of 12 hospitals and clinics, educational institutions and schools in Budapest. He halved the state support for public transport in Budapest. He seized City Park to build it in with giant concrete monsters of buildings. He puts hundreds of billions of public money in luxury investments, filling his friends ’pockets. And if that weren’t enough, he launched another unprecedented attack on local governments in 2020, leaving them to their own devices in mitigating the effects of the social catastrophe caused by the coronavirus epidemic: he took away the vehicle tax, halved the local business tax and tripled the so-called solidarity tax that local governments have to pay. But with these cynical decisions, he is not effectively punishing the municipalities, but , in fact, the people living there.
Enough is enough!
Hungary needs a government that does not build a stadium instead of a metro line; that does not build a Carmelite monastery instead of hospitals; that supports the prosperity of decent entrepreneurs rather than buddies; that provides resources for schools and hospitals, and that regards municipalities as reliable partners. After all, we must together help the daily lives, health, well-being and livelihood of nearly 10 million Hungarians.
There is need for a government that ensures a predictable management environment for local governments on the basis of mutual respect and fair division of labour, also by leaving 1 forint of every 10 paid locally with local governments, while the government performs the state redistribution of the remaining 90 per cent.
This government only understands the language of force, so we must show strength!
We believe that 2021 will be the last bad year of Hungarian self-govenance, because in 2022 we will overthrow Orbán’s regime and elect a government that does not bleed out, but supports local governments!
The plunder of our cities is not governance!
Kata Tüttő, Deputy Mayor
Csaba Horváth, Mayor of Zugló, Leader of the MSZP Group at the Municipality of Budapest
Zsolt Molnár, President of MSZP in Budapest
