[ad_1]
Gergely Karácsony was elected mayor of Budapest in October 2019, and the mayor addressed his constituents on Saturday, approaching the middle of his term. The performance aired on Facebook was billed as a presentation of the program Hogar in Budapest, but the one-and-a-half hour program evoked the hair of an election campaign rather than the report of an incumbent mayor.
In addition to details, the emphasis was more on broad-based ideology and visions. Which prevailed in the text even if we accepted that, living in everyday life in Budapest, there is no doubt that some awareness can fit in with citizens.
The staging was worthy of a major campaign event, the Christmas staff gave it their all. There was drum roll, drone cut edits, reports with opposition mayors, lots of fun, but even heartbreaking moments. The show clearly reached its culmination in the story of Attila Kovács, who once lived as a homeless man and worked as a cleaner in the Covid department of a hospital. Gergely Karácsony personally delivered one of the 86 social rental apartments completed so far during his career as mayor to Attila Kovács.
“It’s a shame for all of us to get so much money for this job”
– Christmas, then continuing the story of Attila Kovács, the mayor almost cried. Still, it would be unfair to accuse Ferenc Gyurcsány of copying a well-known rhetorical trick, as the mayor’s excitement seemed real: the choice of a camera showing the face of Christmas in full screen in a dramatic moment began to authenticate the whole issue. .
However, as Christmas has pointed out, the capital’s statistics urge a change. For example, the number of people living in the agglomeration has been said to have increased by 60 percent since 1960, as many people in Budapest are leaving increasingly uninhabitable urban districts. In many parts of the city, 2 square meters of green space per resident, someone is killed in a car accident every week, while we are stuck in traffic for a week a year due to impossible traffic.
Rental prices take 50 percent off the median salary, while rising real estate prices require 25 years of work to buy an average home.
Therefore, the mayor envisions the creation of a more welcoming Budapest along three pillars. Opportunity Creation aims to continue the aforementioned rental housing program, but Christmas also listed improving health care and helping job seekers. According to the writing of the second program, Green Budapest, Christmas would create a capital where it is good to raise a child.
At this point, in addition to the story of a tree saved on Zrínyi Street, the mayor reported on the new and planned additional bike lanes, as well as the remodeling of Tabán, which had previously stalled due to civil resistance and was later restarted. thanks to good communication. Interestingly, according to the mayor, there are twelve potential green areas in Budapest on Margaret Island, partly by using them, the mayor would reach 7 square meters of green space per capita by 2030.
“The era of strong leaders is over, replaced by the era of strong communities.”
– said Christmas when he addressed the third pillar, the Open Budapest plan. Following the comment addressed to Viktor Orbán, he said that the essence of community governance is to involve the people of Budapest in decisions with general assemblies and civic initiatives; According to the Christmas plans, citizens will be able to decide to invest 1 billion guilders from this year’s budget.
Of course, the event also discussed how Budapest finances all of this. On the budget, Christmas has been at war with the government since his election, so the mayor relies on the support of the EU above all else. In April or May, it will have to decide whether spending HUF 18 billion in EU funds will be linked to the opinion of local governments.
Remember, it is a lot of money. If the Hungarian state and Budapest use this abundance of resources to build the livable Budapest of the future, Hungary will be able to lift itself off the bank of Europe. If EU funds migrate back to specific and private pockets, we will once again tear ourselves apart and explore a historic opportunity.
– said Christmas. The statement affected the government, Balázs Fürjes, Budapest and the Secretary of State for Development of the Budapest agglomeration said on Facebook: The Budapest budget is not in trouble, the government is open to dialogue and wants to spend 3 billion forints on the development of the EU in the next seven years.
(Cover image: Gergely Karácsony at the extraordinary meeting of the General Assembly in Budapest called to strengthen protection against the coronavirus epidemic at the City Hall on September 14, 2020. Photo: Koszticsak Solid / MTI)
[ad_2]
