Government side accused of destroying green urban areas

A left-wing columnist accuses the Mayor of Budapest and the government of ignoring people’s elementary need for a green urban environment.

Budapest’s green surfaces are one of the leading themes in the campaign for the municipal elections scheduled for 13 October. Left-wing candidate Gergely Karácsony accused incumbent Mayor István Tarlós of systematically cutting down trees and destroying parks. The Mayor retorted that over the past two years ten times as many trees have been planted in Budapest per month as under the previous liberal Mayor.

In Népszava, Miklós Hargitay finds it hypocritical for the incumbent Mayor to promise to plant ten thousand trees in Budapest. He enumerates a few building projects in the capital where trees have been replaced by cobblestones over underground garages. In an aside he mentions that one of those garages belongs to a company owned by the Prime Minister’s son in law. He describes Mr Orbán as famously indifferent to environmental issues and believes that local mayors have readily adopted that attitude. Such politicians, Hargitay writes, should finally realise that Budapest is inhabited by human beings.

Tags: Budapest, environment, Karácsony, Tarlós