Index – National – According to the former socialist mayor of Győr, the Borkai era brought a golden age to the city

The interview with József Balogh, who was president of the council before the regime change and then as mayor between 1994 and 2006, was prepared by ugytudjuk.hu.

According to the former mayor

As he said,

the Fidesz system is more centralized and undemocratic than the post-1968 communist system. Then, if the ministry wanted to appoint someone but the local party committee did not agree, the idea of ​​the ministry was over. Teachers and school principals were nominated by local communities, not even the local party committee was really involved. In the 1970s and 1980s, local authorities had much greater autonomy than today. The autonomy of institutions is now limited to what was no longer conceivable in the 1980s.

In his opinion, under Zsolt Borkai, the city began to develop incredibly. How do you say it,

I can say with a clear conscience: Based on the work of its predecessors, the Borkai era was one of the golden ages of the city and, thanks to the high degree of prosperity, Győr became the richest city in the country, despite of its political limitations. Social tensions persisted. Borkai’s biggest mistake was that he came under the influence of one of the largest and most lucrative pressure groups and failed morally.

On how things turned out under Borkai, he said:

Borkai saw the city wagon running anyway, Audi was making the investment, the city had a fourth stage with sports facilities; he wondered why he had so much to work with. He was duped by profit lobbyists. For example, Rákosfalvy was a city attorney, Industrial Park attorney, and attorney for the company that handled the Audi transaction. Whoever has so much power will work in his pocket. Regardless, it was one of the golden ages of the city.

He also commented on the current mayor:

Mayor Dézsi wants to sweep the hall of the city hall by parachuting people from Budapest to Fidesz instead of missing or displaced people. I doubt the effectiveness of this, and I also like the city.