Miskolc needs not one, but at least four steps forward to catch up - interview with József Tóth-Szántai, the city's new right-wing mayor.
Among our long-term goals is the repositioning of Miskolc, the settlement must turn from a steel city into a beech city - stressed József Tóth-Szántai in the interview.
As a joint candidate of Fidesz-KDNP and Pont Mi Egyesület, you won in Miskolc on June 9 with more than 40 percent of the vote. In contrast, his two opposition rivals received only 22.12 and 13.54 percent, respectively. How did you manage to win such a confident victory?
I made personal contact with as many voters as possible. We believed that every handshake and personal conversation was a vote. I've done 178 forums in the last few months, literally met thousands of people. It had an apartment forum, a street forum, a staircase forum, and a market forum. During the personal conversations, problems related to public transport, public order and public safety, and public cleanliness were constantly raised. We had to constantly talk about three areas that are given in a normal city, and therefore could not be campaign topics. We need to tackle these three areas as soon as we take control of the city.
Viktor Orbán also praised your election success. According to the Prime Minister's statement, Miskolc is almost as difficult to take in as Berlin. How about that?
I am very proud that the prime minister was also interested in our successful campaign and spoke positively about our victory. I read the interview in question, the part of which about Miskolc was highlighted by our supporters from the original context and is being distributed on the world wide web, so these thoughts will reach many people from Miskolc. This is a really special venue, a huge success to win here. My team fought with great determination, humility and faith in the campaign in order to finally put this big city on the path of development, which deserves a better fate.
Did you enter politics as a civilian, have you joined Fidesz or KDNP, which supports you?
I was supported by civil organizations, as a mayoral candidate I also contacted the local organizations of all the parties, of which I received the support of Fidesz and the KDNP, and I was invited to join these parties. but my program is based on local patriotism.
Fidesz and KDNP honored me by giving me a very strong say in who my local government representatives will be.
I had the right of veto, which I used, and I could even determine what the compensation list should look like, which fortunately did not become relevant, since we won 15 of the 18 mandates, so we did not have a list mandate. The general assembly will consist of 26 members after the first of October, of which 16 representatives are members of the Pont Mi–Fidesz–KDNP faction, and 10 of my mandates are shared by the other parties, so we will have a confident majority. The current mayor congratulated me after the election victory and assured me of his support. We will have to sit down and review the ongoing projects that must not stop for the sake of the city.
Why did you take on this task?
I have lived in Miskolc since I was born, for 54 years, and have worked as a journalist for the past 30 years. I have met and talked to a lot of people during my work, and I have a lot of knowledge about my birthplace. I love this city passionately, but I've been very disheartened by what I've experienced in the last four or five years.
I use public transport and walk, so reality often confronts me. I admit, hanging around at the bus stop in February, freezing with the other passengers, and then squeezing onto the crowded bus that runs every hour is not a very fun program.
It hurts to see how the shops are closing one after another on one of Europe's longest main streets. The shutters are pulled down on the shops, and the beautiful, more than a hundred-year-old buildings that preserve the bourgeois atmosphere of Miskolc are emptied. More than ten thousand people have left here in the last five years, this is a devastating figure. The city is poor, that's the biggest problem. Pál Veres, who I think is a mayor with infinite goodwill, in 2019, when he accepted this position, did not read the fine print, which is his general assembly and its composition. He did not expect that there would be rough boxing matches in the background, that individual and party interests would dominate the general assembly.
The full interview can be read at hirado.hu!
Featured image: József Tóth-Szántai's social media page
