"Being a good person" is not a solution, and unfortunately, in the current cycle, the Karácsonys paid more than that. Cooperation between the government and Budapest is necessary to solve and develop the Roma issue in the capital - believes István Forgács, an expert on Roma issues, with whom Mandiner conducted an interview, from which we have selected some thoughts.
According to István Forgács, the Roma should not vote for the current mayor, i.e. Gergely Karácsony, in the local government election, since it can be said without exaggeration that in the previous five years no meaningful measures were taken to promote the catch-up of the Gypsies in Budapest, no development concept for the capital was created that would benefit them. regarding would set goals and
no institutional structure was built that could be filled with professional content and persons responsible for it.
Little is said about the Roma Municipality of the Capital, but it is also surrounded by the same scandal as the national Roma self-government body: the former left-wing leadership could not and still cannot account for hundreds of millions of forints, the former president fled into resignation. Official procedures are still ongoing, as is the case with the national government, which was also captured by the left, unfortunately. However, Gergely Karácsony is not responsible for this, but he is responsible for the fact that neither he nor Gábor Kerpel-Frónius, who is forced (and unable) to deal with the Gypsy issue at least in a show-and-see manner, investigated any of these cases. A phantom foundation school could operate for years without students attending, but the school's leaders and the servants of some left-liberal interests adopted the state norms.
The police seized documents, serious proceedings were launched, but Kerpel-Frónius only got as far as humming in this case as well.
But the Budapest city administration, dominated by Ferenc Gyurcsány and his people, has been playing blind, deaf and mute not only in a specific criminal case, but also in Gypsy matters in general.
The mayor did not want to do anything substantial in this area either. Of course, he is happy to go to the opening of a socio-photo exhibition featuring Gypsies at any time, or if the Belpes intelligentsia mutters to himself for the thousandth time how important inclusion is at the CEU, he would surely nod enthusiastically there as well, but this is unacceptable in a comparison of half a decade.
What really needs to be done here is not that there should be water and an asphalted road on Dankó Pista Street, or that the bus should stop next to the gypsy settlement.
It would have been enough for Christmas to at least connect to the measures and programs introduced at the national level,
or at least launch similar ones or supplements to them. In Budapest, everything is in order for the economic-based social catch-up, which I always consider to be of prime importance, to take place as efficiently as possible.
While we have to talk about educational issues, labor, housing, living side by side, public safety, culture, healthcare, or even drug problems. All of this would justify a truly unified approach, which should create its own forum, for which the Gypsy Development Round Table would be perfect.
I am confident that the new mayor will create this, just as he appoints a commissioner responsible for social integration or even an independent deputy mayor, who will be able to represent the interests of Budapest as well as society as a whole in the necessary negotiations with the government. I'm sorely missing this right now, especially so
In Budapest, the tension related to social catch-up is noticeably increasing, which should be dealt with as soon as possible.
A typical picture is how Karácsony is proud of the welcoming, tolerant cosmopolitan Budapesters, but meanwhile the kind fellow citizens do indeed pull their bags closer to them and look around nervously when the tram stops at Blaha. Let it finally be said what has been clear for years: in fact, the voters of Karácsony also want a pro-order, clean, livable Budapest, and it is a schizophrenic state that they dare not admit this, because anti-Orbán overrides everything in their minds. However, recent years have proven that the current mayor is not capable of creating this, because he does not share the same beliefs as they do. Moreover,
the situation is that they would actually vote for Alexandra Szentkirályi, i.e. the Fidesz candidate, but rationality creeps back into their heads very slowly.
There is no one who would disagree with the fact that, in addition to meaningful, coordinated social catch-up and opportunity creation, Budapest also needs order and public cleanliness, as well as predictability and security. In fact, primarily for these. So that the people living here can trust each other - regardless of ethnic, religious or social background. Karácsony should have created this, but even now he does not understand that the people of Budapest actually want this. The bee pasture and the insect hotel are nice, but safe public transport or the cleanliness of the streets are still more important to people. But it's as if he didn't want to deal with that for even a minute. Today, the capital is a prisoner of political mumbo-jumbo, there is no mention of professional issues. And that's right, you definitely can't go on with him!
Photo: MTI/Szilárd Koszticsák
