Even as a "green", Gergely Karácsony is only a man of words and not of deeds, and he does not excel in keeping his own promises - but at least he managed to create huge ones out of small problems.
Gergely Karácsony has neither planted the 15,000 trees per year nor done any worthwhile greening in the last four years, even though he promised before his election to create Budapest's largest green zone from Margitsziget to the Rómaiparti and establish a new park in Észák-Csepel and Ferencváros. The mayor did not fulfill his promises in 2019, and in fact, compared to Tarlós's Budapest, the city fell significantly. According to gardeners, the self-proclaimed green mayor ruined Budapest's green areas for years - in addition, air pollution data also increased due to traffic jams caused by bicycle lanes...
It is also difficult to talk about the other "achievements" of the mayor, the country was mostly known for the City Hall gate, the financing scandal of his election campaign, the micro-donations, and the bridge money scandal related to the Chain Bridge.
More than four years ago, the mayor had the chance to put his large-scale green ideas into action in Budapest. But nothing happened...
Metropol took a look at which of Karácsony 's "green" promises have been fulfilled since the election.
One of Gergely Karácsony's first decisions was to declare a climate emergency. He kept this promise, but let's face it, he didn't have to mobilize great forces to make this decision. Just sign a paper - then nothing happens. Even recording a Facebook video takes more energy than that - and usually nothing happens after that.
Instead of real greening, the mayor started to "enrich" the city with a green-like experience: he sprinkled Budapest with so-called bee pastures or, as they are called, "flower hotels". There were cases where the dog walker hurt him, but mostly he established man-high weeds and toadstool fields in open public areas, which caused many dog owners to complain for years.
Since then, the citizens of the capital haven't seen swarms of bees, only huge weeds and neglect. Due to the unprofessional care of the grounds and the long-term neglect of the green areas, many gardeners drew the attention of Budapest residents to Gergely Karácsony is ruining
„The liberal green policy is: let every plant grow as it wants," said a gardener earlier.
According to him, declaring the growing weeds to be bee grazing and explaining the neglect of park care by saying that it is "natural" is a complete misunderstanding and a mockery of the profession. With their omission, the Karácsonys put their successors in a difficult situation and destroy the ecological balance of the city for years..."
Another great self-realization of Christmas is the bicycle image - perhaps because it gives the feeling of "greening", while it does not mean a single square meter of extra green space - and a couple of buckets of yellow paint is enough, especially if one does not have an urban development concept.
However, in four years, the capital has not grown green, nor has concrete or paving stones been used.
On the other hand, the mayor only annoyed pedestrians and motorists with the yellow paint and the "gerikaro". With bicycle stations and changes to traffic regulations, the mayor referred to the cleanliness of the air, but he achieved the exact opposite, there are traffic jams on every road, so smog and noise pollution often increased in Budapest.
In addition, Gergely Karácsony took away the Chain Bridge and one of the lanes of Nagykörút from motorists and gave it to the smallest community of pedestrians, motorists and cyclists, the cyclists, who cannot use them.
Also, the panel program promised by Karácsony during the campaign was not restarted, and the tender framework supporting the energy modernization of panel apartments was not announced. According to the mayor's previous promises, they want to make it possible for Budapest families to increase the energy efficiency of their homes by insulating them, replacing windows and doors, and upgrading the heating system without any effort or credit. Nothing happened…
In Christmas 2019, he made such resounding promises as organizing the collection of glass waste, improving the management of hazardous and organic waste, and taking action against the use of single-use waste in commercial chains.
Some of the measures became pointless, as the Parliament implemented its ideas by introducing the new waste law.
The mayor put only 100 new environmentally friendly waste collection vehicles into the service of Budapest during his reign. But when we talk about garbage collection, the mayor excelled in the fact that he installed 3,000 public trash cans in the name of savings. No one understands how much this will make the city "greener"... FKF comically tried to explain the campaign with "environmentally conscious urbanization trends".
Socialist politician Csaba Horváth said: Karácsony was thoughtless when he hoped for savings...
Cover image: If Gergely Karácsony touches something, it will only cause trouble
Source: Photo: MTI/Zoltán Balogh
