Budapest’s leaders had earlier ruled out the employment of guest workers by municipality companies and had asked their subsidiaries to follow suit, DK city assembly group leader Sándor Szaniszló, told a press conference ahead of a municipal assembly meeting on Wednesday.

“But the employment of guest workers who mainly come from third countries outside the EU has been prevalent in Hungary,” he said. It was unacceptable that foreign capitalists and “the businesses of [Prime Minister] Viktor Orbán made excessive profits this way”, he said, adding that opposition-led Budapest must demonstrate that “it disagrees with the government’s philosophy of exploiting workers in the interest of generating economic growth and making profits.”

Meanwhile, City Assembly Votes to Lodge Objection to Election Rule Changes

The Budapest City Assembly has voted to lodge its objection to proposed changes to the way local government elections are held ahead of the 2024 local and municipal elections.

The resolution submitted at Wednesday’s session of the assembly by the capital’s mayor, Gergely Karácsony, was approved with 18 representatives in favour, 6 abstentions, while 3 Fidesz-Christian Democrat representatives boycotted the vote.

The resolution notes that the Venice Commission, a body advising the Council of Europe, has consistently maintained the standpoint that electoral systems must not be changed in the year to date of elections.

The assembly also approved with 18 votes in favour and 11 abstentions the capital’s borrowing limit of between 20 billion and 40 billion forints (EUR 52.8m-105.6m) for next year.

They also passed a proposal submitted by Karácsony for taxi service tasks to be taken over in full by the Budapest transport centre BKK as of Jan 1, 2024.

The complex performance of taxi services is currently split between BKK and Budapest road maintenance company Budapest Közút. BKK said in a statement that the decision would make taxi service administration and regulations simpler and more transparent.

Fidesz: Foreign Money 'Clearly Linked' to Karácsony

Zsolt Wintermantel, the leader of the Fidesz-Christian Democrat group in the Budapest City Assembly, said in a speech before Wednesday’s session that the left had campaigned with foreign money in the run-up to the 2022 general election, money that was “quite clearly” linked to the mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony.

He said since 1990 there had been a political consensus that no one should run for public office using the money of foreign influential groups or under the pressure of such groups, but this had been upended last year.

Wintermantel addressed Karácsony, asking him whether he did not feel that his silence on the matter was “highly embarrassing”.

MTI Photo: Zsolt Szigetváry