Battle for Budapest City Hall
Traffic expert Dávid Vitézy is in the race for Budapest City Hall. The non-party specialist politician announced this on Tuesday morning.
“We cannot expect the solution to the capital’s problems from those who caused them in the first place,” is the declaration of war by the independent candidate for the office of mayor. With two decades of experience in (municipal) transport policy behind him, Vitézy wants to tackle at least half a dozen problems. He wants to fight for affordable housing, reorganize public transport from the periphery to the center of the city, strengthen health care, ensure more greenery in the city and develop Budapest holistically, no longer exclusively “within the Great Ring Road”. At the same time, the transport expert criticized the Orbán government, which is depriving Budapest of a number of strategic development projects and withdrawing money, as well as the opposition city leadership, which only resigns itself to the role of victim.
A Fidesz man?
At the age of 15 (!), Vitézy was one of the founders of the civil VEKE transport association, whose suggestions ensured that the Budapest public transport company (BKV) revised its night bus concept. Later, as a Fidesz delegate, he sat on the supervisory board of the BKV, where he initiated internal investigations that led to the discovery of corruption scandals. From 2010 he took over the operational management of the newly founded Budapest Transport Center (BKK), and ten years later he took over the management of the BFK, which is responsible for urban development. In Prof. László Palkovics’ Ministry of Technologies and Industry, Vitézy was appointed State Secretary for Transport in 2022, but resigned following just a few months because the minister withdrew from politics and as State Secretary he might not find common ground with the new Transport Minister János Lázár.
For the woman on the chessboard
The LMP immediately threw its support behind the “independent” candidate in parliament. The green alternative party had already recommended Vitézy for the office of mayor during the election campaign, on the grounds that the “verbal civil war” in the capital must come to an end.
In opinion polls, the incumbent mayor Gergely Karácsony, who, in addition to his Párbeszéd, is also supported by DK, Momentum and MSZP, has had the best chance of being re-elected so far. Just before the holiday weekend, Fidesz nominated the previous government spokeswoman Alexandra Szentkirályi as the top candidate for Budapest. The mayoral candidates from the right-wing parties Mi Hazánk and Jobbik are likely to only play a marginal role in the election on June 9th. Karácsony commented to the socialist daily “Népszava” on Tuesday: “I don’t think Alexandra Szentkirályi will fight the election campaign to the end, the final Fidesz candidate is Dávid Vitézy. As is well known, the Orbán government only puts women on the chessboard so that they can be taken down once more at any time.”
#Nonpartisan
