There is something to investigate in connection with the bridge money scandal at City Hall, this is also clear from the video published by the mayor.
In his latest campaign video, Gergely Karácsony, holding a helmet with the inscription A-Híd, talked about the changes affecting public transport in Budapest. All of this is remarkable because the mayor has so far categorically refused even questions about the bridge money scandal.
As you may remember, several investigations are underway in connection with the HUF 1.4 billion transferred by A-Híd, which is carrying out the renovation of the Chain Bridge, to the company of Vig Mór, who is suspected in the invoice factory case, due to suspicion of serious corruption. According to the signs, however, Karácsony is not interested in this, he is still standing by the company, which, compared to the original plans, carried out the bridge renovation for HUF 5 billion more expensively.
This can also be seen from the video that the mayor published on Instagram on Wednesday, in which he boasted about the changes affecting public transport in Budapest.
The campaign video backfired this time, Karácsony exposed himself.
At first, the mayor and his communication staff obviously found it a striking idea that the paper notes containing the questions of the social media followers were collected in a yellow safety helmet, and then Karácsony pulled out the selected ones one by one.
However, the observant viewer will notice that the inscription A-Híd Zrt. can be read on the front of the helmet, i.e. the name of the company that carried out the scandalous renovation of the Chain Bridge.
The A-Híd logo and the beginning of the name are still clearly visible here
Source: Origo
In the roughly one and a half minute recording, which was obviously cut from several parts, the yellow helmet in Karácsony's hand suddenly "turned around" and apparently tried to cover the inscription A-Híd.
Presumably, they indicated to him that the name of the company these days is not exactly a message to improve its popularity, but rather embarrassing. Especially after the fact that the mayor played the role of an unintelligible statistician in recent days, when he was asked what he knew about suspected corruption-related money movements related to the renovation of the Lánchíd, for example the HUF 1.4 billion that A-Híd Zrt. 2020 between November and July 2022 - i.e. at the time of the bridge investment - he transferred money to the company of Vig Mór, who is suspected of serious crimes in the invoice factory case.
A few days before Christmas in Brussels, he categorically stated to the local correspondent of M1 that there is no scandal of any kind, it is all just a figment of the imagination of the press, therefore there is no reason to set up a commission of inquiry. At the same time, he also tried to defend himself by saying that the aforementioned HUF 1.4 billion was transferred to Vig Mór's company by A-Híd Zrt. even before the contract for the renovation of the Chain Bridge was concluded with the capital municipality.
Published information about the dates of the money movements refutes Karácsony,
but even if the mayor is right, the question immediately arises: how can he know when and to whom the construction company transferred billions of money? As far as is known, Gergely Karácsony has no interest in A-Híd Zrt., since he is the mayor of Budapest.
However, Wednesday's Instagram video clearly indicates that there is still something to investigate in connection with the bridge money scandal at City Hall.
The Government Audit Office has already started the investigation on the basis of a public interest report, in which lawyer István Tényi drew attention to the fact that, based on the details of the ongoing investigation into the Vig Mór invoice factory, which have been made public, crimes may have been committed in connection with the works of Lánchíd, such as bribery, embezzlement and misappropriation.
Cover photo: Karácsony was happy to pose with a safety helmet even during the works
Source: Facebook/Gergely Kárácsony
