Speaking to Hungarian journalists, Marki-Zay said that political discrimination was taking place against the city of Hodmezovasarhely, in southeast Hungary. He claimed that "unlawful, unconstitutional political discrimination" was afoot against the 43,000 Hodmezovasarhely citizens, "including Fidesz voters".

"We are fighting with complaints, constitutional complaints and, last but not least, by lobbying the government in Hungary and here at the European Commission, the European Parliament, its bodies and even the Council of Europe, so that they too will stand up for the rule of law and local government in Hungary. We are doing everything we can to prevent Hodmezovasarhely from being dispossessed and our money from being stolen from us," he said.

According to the mayor, Hodmezovasarhely should have received 500 million forints in funding within the government-subsidised Competitive Districts Programme. "Regional Development Minister Tibor Navracsics didn't give the city a penny, despite the fact that 82 percent of the district's citizens live in Hodmezovasarhely," he said.

He said the discrimination was running afoul of all constitutional and EU principles. In the past days, he had met EU institutions' representatives and the leaders of the largest party families of the European Parliament, he said, highlighting "that stealing or withholding resources from the opposition is a ubiquitous problem in Hungary."

Marki-Zay said it was in all Hungarians' interests to "earn financial support from the EU" by running the country fairly and free from corruption and by upholding EU principles. Otherwise, Hungary will be unable to maintain growth, the quality of life and public services, he said.

"We are asking that you fully withhold funding, to make sure Orban stops building a one-party state and stops stealing..." he said.

Meanwhile: Hadhazy Says Orban 'following in Putin's footsteps'

"Hybrid regimes don't stop until they are stopped," independent lawmaker Akos Hadhazy told a demonstration in downtown Budapest on Tuesday. "It is clear that Prime Minister Viktor Orban is following in Putin's footsteps," he said.

Hadhazy told the demonstration demanding the withdrawal of amendments to the assembly law and the draft law on the transparency of public life that "the end of the road [of hybrid regimes] is full dictatorship."

And yet, "there are only a few hundred people here week after week, demonstrating against the Chinese-type face recognition system, we shrug our shoulders about the transparency law ... we do nothing except complain," he said.
 

While demonstrating is uncomfortable and risky, "if we are late with mobilising people and the dictatorship is already here, then we can fear for our livelihood and our physical existence."

Commenting on Orban calling him "a fool", Hadhazy said: "They are out of arguments. I would rather be a fool than methodically ransack the country for 15 years, to pocket thousands of billions of taxpayer money, and to use hundreds of billions to rile up people and to lie month after month, all day long."

Meanwhile, Hadhazy said some in opposition circles had also called him a fool for "protesting for unattainable things".

"We demand the withdrawal of the techno-fascist law and the draft transparency law, even though we know it is unlikely we should achieve it in the coming months." At the same time, protests may "light a fire under those on power and achieve that they lose confidence," he added.

University teacher Gabor Polyak said that propaganda was harming everyone by strangling democracy. He called on the crowd not to "yield the whole digital space to populists, call a lie a lie, take care of those working against the disappearance of sensible speech, and stand up for the people targeted by propaganda."
 

After the demonstration, the crowd walked to the spontaneous memorial of Russian opposition politician Alexandr Navalny near the Russian embassy.
 

Source: MTI – Hungary’s national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent.

Since the goal of XpatLoop is to keep readers well briefed, right across the spectrum of opinions, MTI items are shared to ensure readers are aware of all narratives within the local media.

XpatLoop believes in empowering readers to form their own views through complete and comprehensive coverage. To facilitate this XpatLoop has a balanced range of news partners, as you can see when you surf around XpatLoop.com

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