Karacsony welcomed the new government, which was inaugurated earlier on Tuesday. "While defending Budapest's values, principles and functionality from the Orban government in the past years, we developed several proposals that would serve Budapest as well as the country," he said.

"These have fallen on deaf ears for six years. Now, several of them made an appearance at the new ministers' hearings: a promising start," he said.

Karacsony welcomed the new regional and rural development minister's pledge to erase the "artificially fomented controversy between Budapest and rural areas." Viktoria Lorincz also said Budapest would no longer be seen as "an opponent in development," he added.

"Reforms can begin in the local government system, along with the restoration of municipalities’ rights and opportunities. There will be a "Budapest Act" that will finally regulate cooperation between the state and the capital, and Budapest and its metropolitan area have been presented as a single entity at several ministerial hearings," he said.

Attempts to bleed the city dry would cease, Karacsony said. The system for deducting the solidarity contribution will be reformed and the capital will gain access to EU funds, he said.

Environmental protection and nature conservation would also see a new approach, he said: "green issues finally have a ministry and a dedicated government official," and the new government will put an end to the criminalisation of the homeless, he said.

"And then this year, we finally won’t have to go through the hassle anymore, but we can simply organise Budapest Pride, the celebration of freedom in the city of freedom," he added.

MTI Stock Photo

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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