I often have the feeling that Gergely Karácsony has no idea what his task as city manager would be - emphasized Zsolt Láng, the government commissioner responsible for the complex development of the Central Hungarian Economic Development Zone, in relation to Budapest's year 2022. According to Zsolt Wintermantel, the leader of the Fidesz-KDNP faction in Budapest, the position of mayor is only a station in the life of Gergely Karácsony, where he can pay off his debts and fulfill his own political ambitions.

"I don't think that the mayor can be satisfied with this year at all," the Budapest faction leader of the Fidesz-KDNP pointed out when asked by Magyar Nemzet. Zsolt Wintermantel drew attention, among other things, to the fact that the mayor ran into quite a few scandalous cases this year, just think of his conversation with the fake Klitschko. There was also a case where he spoke out against the Hungarian government together with foreign liberal mayors. At the same time, the City Hall does not stop by journalists to answer their questions, but is only active on social media. Regarding the mayor's communication, Zsolt Wintermantel explained: Gergely Karácsony is constantly mistaking his role.

He never does the work he is asked to do, but what suits his political career. During the five years Gergely Karácsony was mayor in Zugló, he did not show anything, he had one thing in mind: to be the mayor. At the same time, he started to build his ambitions as prime minister from here, and that is why he placed people in positions to help his political career, the faction leader emphasized. According to Zsolt Wintermantel, although Gergely Karácsony withdrew from the prime ministerial candidate competition in the fall of 2021, even after that the mayorship was not the first for him, which the people of Budapest asked him to do.

The faction leader drew attention to the fact that there was no example of a mayor not being able to present a single investment of his own, because the renovation of Lánchíd and Blaha Lujza tér was also started by the previous team led by István Tarlós. As he put it: he is convinced that Gergely Karácsony does not like Budapest.

The full article of Magyar Nemzet can be read here.

Author: Éva Harangozó

Picture: Attila Trenka