In a statement, former mayor István Tarlós rejected the accusations of Gergely Karácsony, in which he tries to hold Budapest's former leadership responsible for the fact that the director of the children's home in Bicske, who was convicted of pedophile crimes, was able to receive the István Bárczy award in the capital in 2015.

In his response to PestiSrácok's inquiry, Tarlós explained the bare facts: according to this, the Metropolitan Municipality forwarded to the police a complaint received against the former director of the children's home in Bicske, i.e. János V., in 2011. The police launched an investigation, but no crime was found.

"Two years later, on January 1, 2013, the Bicske institution was transferred from the maintenance of the capital to state maintenance (under the supervision of the Ministry of Human Resources led by Zoltán Balog)," wrote Tarlós.

After this, János V received an award from the capital in 2015, which was presented by the competent committee. As the former mayor writes, "the motivation is unknown, but anyone can see the rationale."

Tarlós draws attention to the fact that

the DK Gy. Erzsébet Németh was also a member of this committee, who obviously knew János V a long time ago, since he was already the head of the MSZP's faction in the capital during the Demszky era.

"Gy. And Németh took part in the committee meeting where they decided on János V, and where neither he nor anyone else expressed an objection," added the former city manager.

Tarlós continues: the crime for which János V was convicted was only discovered a year later in 2016. Zoltán Balog nominated János V. for a state award this year. It was therefore not elegant on his part to point to the Municipal Government, even if he acted in good faith in his own proposal.

Erzsébet Gy. Németh and Gergely Karácsony also voted for the award in the Capital Assembly in 2015.

- reminded the former mayor. According to Tarlós, the flaming of Karácsony is now discredited, and the reason why he tries to surpass all other communication with him every day is because he is afraid of the election, he is a coward again, he is running away again, he is shining himself again.

"He makes a mistake again, he boasts that he withdrew this award in 2019. Five years have passed since then. When he deleted it five years ago, he knew without a doubt why he did it. He also knew that in 2015 he also voted yes for the award in the general assembly. Of course, even then, as always, they were misled - obviously Gy. Némethet too"

- wrote the former city manager.

Why didn't you get upset then, why didn't you start an investigation into the circumstances of the award then? - asked Tarlós, who said that "Kárácsony is another fox on the run, he wants to profit from a story he rewrote, and he sees everyone as stupid".

Featured image: Mandiner/Árpád Földházi