It can be said to be a rare moment in press history, when the right-wing and left-wing media are united in their response to an event.
And yet this is what happened, because Diósd's currently reigning mayor practically awarded himself the title of honorary citizen.
The path to becoming an honorary citizen - in our case, an honorary mayor
Géza Spéth became a municipal representative in 1990, and was elected mayor four years later. With the exception of one term (2014–2019), he has led the Pest County city for nearly three decades. Most recently, Diósdiak ran in the colors of the Várossért Egyesület, and with only 21 votes, it only got more than Gábor Albitz, the candidate of the Fidesz-KDNP at the time.
The glorification of the strange is not prohibited by law, but it is, to put it mildly, perverse:
"Proposals for the awarding of the title of honorary citizen are reviewed by the Preparatory Committee established for this purpose. Based on the recommendation of the Preparatory Committee, the mayor makes a proposal for the donation to the representative body. In the nomination for donation, the candidate's life path and the merits on which the title of honorary citizen is based must be presented in the detail necessary for an informed decision. The representative body decides on the awarding of the title of honorary citizen by a qualified majority."
The other candidate would have been the 93-year-old, sick Ferenc Hermann, Diósd's first mayor after the regime change, but his name could not even be put before the representative body. His family is extremely disappointed because of this, they believe that Uncle Feri deserved the title by right.
The captured city
Diósd's city administration is like a kaleidoscope - 80-90 percent of the same names and faces jump into different formations before each municipal election. Anyone who comes new and comes with new ideas is quickly "milled down" by the old ones - many geese win over pigs. That is why this city, wedged between Budapest, Érd and Törökbálint, with a population of more than 11,000 people, is the place where there is always an explanation for what the management cannot do. The election promises remain more than words shouted into the wilderness, and Diósd hardly differs from itself 30 years ago - a kind of subtly crumbling interior hangs around.
Time has stopped
The only significant change is brought about by the new settlers, with their arrival the free areas practically ran out, and residential parks and modern Kádár blocks – white-walled houses with anthracite roofs and fences – mushroomed out of the ground. But no one is happy, except maybe Géza Spéth with his new title of honorary citizen. The infrastructure can't handle the crowds, the old ones mourn the days before it became a city, and the new ones feel like they didn't get what they paid for. In many places, the asphalt pavement is missing, and in even more places there are no sidewalks (there is no chance of their construction), so it is difficult and dangerous to travel on foot with strollers and small children; the car, on the other hand, is more and more. The main square of the city is poor, to say the least. Although the Mayor's Office was recently gutted, the sight of the main square gives one the impression that Diósd was stuck in socialism.
Diósdi Mayor's Office / Photo: Civilek.Info
Old faces, old notes
In the 2019 elections, Géza Spéth ran as the mayoral candidate of the Diósdiak a Várossért Egyesület - he failed as a Fidesz candidate in the previous cycle - but was in the minority in the body; apart from him, only three people from his team made it. Fidesz was able to delegate five representatives, while the opposition formation Élhetobb Diósdért was able to delegate two, but two Fidesz representatives have now left the local organization, and they usually vote in favor of Spéth's decisions in board voting. It is interesting that one of them is Spéth's archenemy, Gábor Albitz, the mayoral candidate still wearing Fidesz colors in 2019.
"In Diósdon, old acquaintances and family relationships dominate party politics," a resident, who asked to remain anonymous, told our newspaper, "it's been this way for as long as I can remember. Like a crop rotation, this goes here, that goes there, but the essence remains the same. In 2019, Spéth's old friend Aradszki (András Aradszki, KDNP parliamentarian - ed.) also formally supported Albitz in the campaign, and informally appointed his own person as Spéth's campaign manager.
The population is dissatisfied and afraid
Gábor Nagy - in the video and in the highlighted picture behind the mayor in a blue jacket - appeared as a new member of Spéth's team in 2019, and he failed most spectacularly: his district was won by the Fidesz candidate, and with the largest margin. Nevertheless, after the elections, Gábor Nagy is the most important, he was able to sit on the finance committee, he was appointed a member of the supervisory board of Városgazda Kft., and a new status was created - communications officer - which he also holds.
"The snapshot when Gábor Nagy, the financier of Polg, parked one of his expensive, branded cars in front of the crumbling office said a lot about the city"
- notes another Diósdi bitterly.
But this is not the only problem with the wealthy entrepreneur. Last year, he reported 11 people for defamation, this year 4. Recently, he blocked off a street from traffic with public flower boxes, which happens to be the one where his house stands. This caused such public outrage that the population started a petition and the mayor eventually backed down from the decision. However, the person who expressed his displeasure with Gábor Nagy's activities on social media was reported by the entrepreneur.
"In the first round, there were 11 of those reported - one of the people involved told our newspaper - but the police only found six of us. Two of them apologized to Nagy in court, but he made the forgiveness subject to conditions, which was quite humiliating for those involved, but the four of us stood by our opinion, in which we did not formulate any personal insults, it was only about public matters.
And we did the right thing, because the court gave us the right, the first-instance ruling stated that Gábor Nagy is indeed a public figure - he disputes this despite the court's decision - and also that the opinion is free.
But he is taking the case to the second level, and now he has reported four people again - two of whom were also in the previous round - for expressing a similar opinion, while he carefully deleted his profile, about which he had slandered and insulted others. But it's okay, we have proof and we'll keep fighting. However, many people are afraid, they only dare to say on the phone or face to face that this little kingdom is unsustainable, but they don't dare to speak up because they don't want to go to court and pay a lawyer. And this is Nagy's goal, intimidation, silencing, so that he can do whatever he wants. Look, he goes to the police, pays HUF 10,000 and the summons goes to the defamation case. I think this is nothing more than a nasty abuse of the opportunity provided by the law."
According to another complainant, many, many millions of public money were spent on the transport concept, everything was voted on by the board, but the execution was irregular, and it still is, and all this serves the convenience of one person, Gábor Nagy.
When asked what the mayor, who now holds the title of honorary citizen, has to say about this, they unanimously answer that nothing, or simply that this is Gábor Nagy's private matter. If you even know about it. Facebook is managed by Gábor Nagy as communications officer, Spéth and the office posts are also published by him. According to them, the mayor does not fully understand the difference between a public figure and a private person, and it is not possible to change these roles according to the person's whim.
Finally, we also asked a local government representative if he thought the mayor deserved the title of honorary citizen he had been given. He didn't want to speak by name either, but without a name he said "yes, but not now". In other words, according to him, it is not very tasteful for an incumbent mayor to reward himself, even if this is not a completely new custom in Diósdon: Spéth was given the title by the reigning deputy mayor, Dániel Varga, who was also awarded the title of honorary citizen last year, and a local general practitioner. By the way, Diósd's former deputy mayor, Tibor Albitz, who died in 2021 - another member of the Albitz family - was also an honorary citizen of the city.
Memes related to Géza Spéth's honorary citizen award have already appeared in Diósd Facebook groups. Source: Diósdon Hallottam - We live in one place
According to another resident, however, Spéth does not and has never met the criteria that an honorary citizen should meet, and with this self-reward he somewhat devalued the previous recognition.
"It is true that Spéth's activity is balanced, but it is balanced between the medium and the sufficient level, not infrequently even going below.
And the fact that someone, even in the best case, performs the task for which he requested and received authorization cannot really be called an outstanding performance.
Look around! Take a tour of Diósd and judge the public conditions for yourself. Check out the playgrounds, public spaces, public buildings, drains, roads, sidewalks! See what's there, in what condition it's in, and what's not. If you have, you can judge Géza Spéth's performance for yourself. The real tragedy of Diósd is that in 30 years, he was unable to produce a single leader who could overcome Spéth's weak, often dilettantish city management."
Featured Image: Screenshot
