Budapest sends political representative to Brussels
December 20th, 2019While the Brussels representative of the new left-liberal Mayor of Budapest hopes that the capital can get direct EU subsidies without having to submit applications through the government, a right-wing columnist calls the idea a bluff.
In Népszava, former MEP Benedek Jávor explains that so far, the capital city has been represented in Brussels by a clerk, while his appointment is political in character. He will run an office which will organize various events following the example of the Prague House or the Helsinki House in Brussels. He knows that the EU will not change the system of cohesion fund payments for Budapest’s sake, but hopes to be able to apply for special funds, in order to combat urban pollution, for example.
Magyar Hírlap’s Dániel Kacsoh, by contrast, thinks Mr Jávor’s appointment is a pure stunt. He recalls that Budapest’s new Mayor, Gergely Karácsony and Benedek Jávor were both founding members of the LMP party and “betrayed it together” in order to join former social-liberal PM Gordon Bajnai’s election bid in 2014. After Jávor failed to be elected to the European Parliament earlier this year, Kacsoh writes, the Mayor found a new job for him. The pro-government columnist deems the idea to get direct EU payments for Budapest completely unrealistic.