The Mayor of Budapest Gergely Karacsony has announced the city’s budget for 2021 and said that the operating resources will fall below the 2013 levels, with a EUR 16m deficit. The Mayor stated that just the pandemic cost the city EUR 100m, and the crisis that followed another EUR 100m. On top of this the government took from Budapest as a form of “solidarity payment” an additional EUR 70m, which emptied the capital of Hungary’s treasury. Karacsony in his statement said, that since his defeat of the Fidesz candidate in 2019 Budapest had become a net contributor to the Hungarian budget. Due to conflicts with the ruling party recovery funds eligible from the EU are being blocked. The EU parliament is voting around a way to prevent Orban’s cabinet from cutting the city of EU funds.
