Mini-Dubai: Budapest Residents Betrayed by Fidesz, Claims Tisza Leader
- 30 Jan 2025 8:32 AM

In a statement, Peter Magyar said that "it wasn't the first time that the representatives of [ruling] Fidesz, [opposition] DK and the Socialist and Parbeszed parties colluded and voted against the interests of the capital's residents", making reference to a vote in the municipal assembly concerning the Rakosrendezo key development area project.
"Thanks to the roll-call vote initiated by our party the whole country could witness how the entire Fidesz group and Alexandra Szentkiralyi, its leader, betrayed Budapest's residents and every Hungarian citizen," Magyar said.
The party's councillors on Wednesday voted in favour of a resolution expressing the metropolitan council's intention to exercise its pre-emption rights over the Rakosrendezo development area.
Budapest city council expresses intent to exercise pre-emption rights over Rakosrendezo area
The Budapest city assembly on Wednesday passed a resolution expressing the metropolitan council’s intention to exercise its pre-emption rights over the city’s Rakosrendezo development area.
The proposal submitted by Gergely Karacsony, the mayor of Budapest, was approved with 23 votes in favour and 10 votes against cast by the city councillors of the ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrats.
Under the resolution, the city assembly calls on the head of Budapest utility company BKM to exercise its pre-emption rights in connection with the agreement concluded on Jan 16, 2025 between the Hungarian state and Eagle Hills Hungary over the sale of the Rakosrendezo development area in Budapest’s 14th district.
The city councillors have appointed Karacsony to develop in cooperation with BKM "an urban development and business concept for the utilisation of the properties covered in the purchase agreement that complies with the relevant regulations and resolutions of the Metropolitan Assembly".
The proposal noted that the state sold the Rakosrendezo development area to Eagle Hills for a net 51 billion forints without calling a tender, with the purchase price due to be paid by 2039. It, however, notes that once the buyer pays 25 percent of the whole purchase price it obtains ownership rights over properties on the plot.
In the purchase agreement the Hungarian state informed the buyer that BKM has pre-emption rights when it came to the purchase of a property.
Meanwhile, at the initiative of David Vitezy, the leader of the Podmaniczky Movement group in the city assembly, the councillors declared in a document that they reject and condemn that the purchase agreement signed by the government had ignored the city assembly’s earlier resolution on the area’s development concept.
The purchase agreement sets as a condition the creation of a green area no larger in size than 10 percent of the entire plot, the construction of a parking lot for a large number of cars and the construction of an up to 500-metre high office building.
The metropolitan assembly also established that the investment project planned by the Hungarian government and the UAE-based investor in its current form ran counter to the preservation of Budapest's built heritage and the maintenance of its world heritage status, and in all to the interests of Budapest residents.
Addressing the debate, Karacsony called it "a historic challenge to ensure quality living in the capital in the coming decades" which, he said, required quality housing areas and green areas.
"Budapest does not need to be remembered in history as a city that allowed the construction of central Europe's tallest building, as one that attracted another 3 million tourists to visit it for the purpose of spending time here as if in Dubai…" the mayor said, adding that "the government's sweetheart project" did not have "a single element not running counter to the interests of Budapest and the country as a whole".
"The contract that the Hungarian state concluded with the Arab investors is about nothing more than how to sell Hungary's most valuable land without a competitive bidding process," Karacsony said.
He said the city of Budapest had drafted its concept dubbed "Park City" in 2019. "The Rakosrendezo development project is about teaching the city and the country how to make use of plots that used to be owned once by the state rail company," he said. "It is not an exaggeration to say that the future of Budapest depends on it."
Fidesz group leader Alexandra Szentkiralyi said Karacsony wanted to develop the area in question "without even having completed the handkerchief-sized area that would be City Hall Park in five years".
She said Karacsony had not done anything with the Rakosrendezo area either in his first term as Budapest mayor or before that as the mayor of the 14th district, but was trying to block the development of the area now that there was an investor to do it.
Szentkiralyi said it would be preferable if the Rakosrendezo area was redeveloped by an investor instead of from public funds, arguing that the construction work would create thousands of jobs and opportunities for Hungarian SMEs.
David Vitezy said the clean-up of the area "would have been the state’s job", adding that it was up to "Budapest residents and not Arab investors or [Construction Minister] Janos Lazar" to decide how the city should be developed.
He said the question was whether the city should be developed in public ownership and in line with the interests of the public and whether the city’s sovereignty and the interests of its residents could be enforced.
Balazs Balogh of the opposition Tisza Party said "the Arab ruler has been given a blank check" while the opinion of Budapest residents and the city assembly was being ignored, adding that no one other than [ruling] Fidesz supported the project.
Karacsony: Rakosrendezo project raises issues of autonomy, sovereignty
The planned development project at Budapest's Rakosrendezo area raises issues of sovereignty and autonomy, Mayor Gergely Karacsony told the municipal assembly.
Ahead of a vote whether the city should excercise its pre-emption rights and purchase the area, the mayor said "the Rakosrendezo cause" would determine "if such a major project at such an important area of the city is implemented in line with the will of local residents ... or in a completely different way."
Meanwhile, the mayor said a recent ruling concerning the city's "solidarity tax" to be paid to the central budget also had a direct impact on the city's autonomy and freedom.
"There is no free, self-sustaining city without resources that it can use freely and independently," Karacsony said. He said that under the ruling, collecting over 28 billion forints [EUR 68.6m] from the city's accounts in 2023 had been illegitimate.
Meanwhile, Szijjarto: Hungary, UAE committed to cooperation
Hungary and the United Arab Emirates have affirmed their commitment to expanding a cooperation based on mutual respect, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said in a statement issued by his ministry.
Speaking in Abu Dhabi, Szijjarto said bilateral economic ties had developed dynamically, with trade between the countries reaching half a billion dollars in 2024. He added that the sides had agreed to expand their cooperation to new areas, too.
Partnerships between Hungarian and UAE businesses are starting in the areas of crude and gas production as well as renewables, and both sides want to establish closer cooperation in the areas of banking, digital industry, telecommunications and the defence industry, he said. Cooperation in the food industry is expected to expand, too, he added.
Szijjarto said the European Union could benefit from a closer cooperation with the Gulf Region in light of the region's marked improvement in competitiveness, even as the EU's competitiveness had declined.
He noted that efforts to reach a broad free trade agreement between the EU and the Gulf Cooperation Council had been unsuccessful and pressed for the start of negotiations on a separate free trade agreement with the UAE.
Szijjarto acknowledged the UAE's stabilising role in the region and other parts of the world and pointed to its important part in the global fight against terrorism. He said the sides had affirmed their commitment to cooperating on initiatives to achieve peace and resolve armed conflicts.
Hungary signs MoU with UAE's EDGE Group on defence industry cooperation
Defence Minister Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Arab Emirates' EDGE Group on cooperation in defence industry R+D+I in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, his ministry said.
Szalay-Bobrovniczky noted that he had discussed the possibility of defence industry cooperation with Mohammed Fadel Al Mazrouei, the UAE's minister of state for defence, in the spring.
"We're stepping up the cooperation we started then, with the EDGE Group, one of the world's leading defence industry companies," he said.
A contract was also signed with EDGE Group on the supply of CARACAL sniper rifles.
Szalay-Bobrovniczky acknowledged the UAE's increasingly active role in contributing to international military and security cooperation, including in the Sahel Region.
Source:
MTI - The Hungarian News Agency, founded in 1881.
*********************************
You're very welcome to comment, discuss and enjoy more stories via our Facebook page:
Facebook.com/XpatLoopNews + via XpatLoop’s groups: Budapest Expats / Expats Hungary
You can subscribe to our newsletter here: XpatLoop.com/Newsletters
Do you want your business to reach tens of thousands of potential high-value expat customers? Then just contact us here.
LATEST NEWS IN property