The Ferencváros municipality requested and received fifty free tickets for the World Athletics Championships, the local Fidesz has learned. Which is also embarrassing because he tried to use the world event as a political trump card on several occasions.

Mayor Gergely Karácsony opposed the government and threatened to cancel the World Cup more than once. The ruling party asks Krisztina Baranyi IX. district mayor to hand over the free tickets to local needy families.

We recommend to Krisztina Baranyi that needy families from Ferencváros should receive the free tickets to the World Athletics Championships instead of the mayor's well-paid cadres

- said Andrea Gyurákovics, head of the Fidesz representative group in Ferencváros.

As he wrote: they became aware that the IX. the district municipality requested and received fifty tickets from the government for the athletics world championships in August. The municipality's ticket request is also interesting in light of the fact that since the victory in the 2019 municipal elections in the capital, the left has continuously blackmailed the government by canceling the World Cup, using the sporting event as a political trump card to assert its own interests.

Last month, Mayor Gergely Karácsony even declared that he would not take part in the opening ceremony of the worldwide broadcast sports event. As he said: the publicity of the World Cup will be used to say that the government did not keep its word, that only about half of the funds promised by the cabinet arrived in the districts.

The mayor also added: if the government wants the mayor and the IX. district mayor to be present at the opening in August, and the celebration to be a success in front of the whole world, then they must abide by the agreement.

We cannot do anything but use the publicity that the World Athletics Championships will attract to Hungary to say: the government did not keep its word regarding the investment

- said the mayor to ATV. In contrast, the Ferencváros left eventually accepted fifty tickets for the events of the World Cup.

In recent weeks, Gergely Karácsony has also threatened to organize a demonstration in front of the athletics stadium on the opening day if the government does not pay the remaining part of the funds of the Healthy Budapest Program (EBP). As he said: he will be there, but not inside, but outside in front of the stadium.

Gergely Gulyás told Kormányinfo about the slippage of the remaining funds: this happened in part because many districts could not spend the money they received during the Covid epidemic. As is known, the funds allocated to the districts of the Healthy Budapest program are still being used in several places, construction and renovations are taking place, but there are also projects that have not yet been started.

It is worth noting: back in 2019, the mayor asked for HUF 50 billion from the government's EBP framework, in return he gave his consent to the organization of the World Athletics Championships. Despite the government's additional resources, the veto of the World Cup remained a regular topic in the mayor's communication and in the Metropolitan Assembly. In September 2021, the left-wing majority voted for a conditional veto of the World Athletics Championships, which caused several district mayors to express concern, fearing that the government would withdraw previously promised subsidies for health improvements, citing the veto.

If there is no World Cup contribution, the contract with the government will also be null and void. Two months later, Karácsony announced that he would not veto the organization of the World Cup after all. It is not a negligible factor: the tripartite agreement on the organization of the 2023 World Athletics Championships was concluded by the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) with the Hungarian Athletics Federation (MASZ) and the Hungarian government, the capital city is not among the contracting parties. For this reason, Zsolt Láng, the Fidesz faction leader in the capital at the time, called Karácsony's proposal containing the veto a political bluff.

Hungarian Nation

Featured image: Krisztina Baranyi's Facebook page