If bankruptcy occurs in Budapest, the city administration is far from innocent, said the former mayor.
According to István Tarlós, the current mayor Gergely Karácsony would not be proud if Budapest fell during his reign for the first time in the 150-year existence of the united capital.
"It is not known for sure how true the imminent risk of bankruptcy is. Maybe so, maybe not. The city administration does not deal with numbers according to the rules of mathematics, this has been evident for a long time," said István Tarlós. He was reacting to the fact that it was revealed last week: the city administration already sent a letter to the Ministry of Finance in March stating that Budapest was going bankrupt.
"For my part, I do not wish bankruptcy for the city or Karácsony, but if it does happen, the city administration is far from innocent. Even though they group the facts according to their own interests, in the event of a bankruptcy it will no longer be decided by what Ambrus Kiss says or what Népszava writes," stressed István Tarlós.
He announced that the previous city administration inherited HUF 251 billion in debt in 2010, while in 2019 Budapest was handed over with a reserve of HUF 200 billion. Added to this is the fact that during Gergely Karácsony's term, the business tax only increased by HUF 107 billion.
These facts, the rest are political and communication juggling, stated the former city manager.
István Tarlós said about the completion of the renovation of metro line 3: "Kárácsony finished this work, for which I congratulate you, even if we did the lion's share of it."
However, he noted that two significant pieces of information should be highlighted. One is that the claim that the fines are high because the Russians did a bad job is incorrect in the case of renovation of the fittings. On the other hand, the truth is that BKV concluded a "too good" contract in that year, in which the basis of the penalty is not the consideration for the repair of a specific defect, but the price of the entire installation. The other is the renovation of the infrastructure, where the city administration speaks in contradictory and vague terms. He emphasized: the government gave ten times as much money to the project as the capital, and the city administration between 2010-2019 obtained the funds from the cabinet.
According to the former mayor, in addition to leaving the Biodóm to its fate, the matter of the flood protection of the cszillaghegy bay is also incomprehensible, since the current city administration, in contrast to previous plans, would not establish the defense line on the Római coast directly on the coast, but on Nánási út, so the restaurants and leisure parks located in the area they would still be exposed to direct flooding.
"We started a construction project for a flood protection structure, which the dark greens deformed into a landscape protection investment," he declared.
When Gergely Karácsony called him old-fashioned, István Tarlós responded: this is true in a certain sense (technical issues, the essence of city management, favoring order, management, rainbow politics).
"And I, while also acknowledging certain human qualities, say that Gergő Karácsony is a feminine figure whose personality was not tailored to the mayorship. I see that he doesn't really understand or know the city very well. At the same time, it is expected that Gyurcsány will support him, and if he remains alone on the opposition side, he has a chance to be re-elected, which is not for performance reasons, but for political and emotional reasons", opined the former mayor.
