Subscribe to our social channels to get the latest news about Hungary!
Local elections – Karácsony: Voters have chance for change in their locality
Change language:
By supporting joint candidates of the opposition parties in the October local elections, voters will have a chance to change the future course of their area, Gergely Karácsony, the left-liberal opposition candidate for mayor of Budapest, said on Friday.
The government has damaged health care, education and social care over the past nine years, Karácsony told a press conference.
“We want local governments to have a chance to repair the damage and become islands not only of freedom but of solidarity as well”, he said.
Karácsony said the opposition wanted a fairer and greener policy in the municipalities based on solidarity.
He said that as mayor of the Zugló district of Budapest he was proud of the social model established there, and it figured in every opposition party’s programme in terms of providing a national solution.
Bertalan Tóth, leader of the Socialist Party, said the main aim of the election campaign was to replace the “little kings” of the ruling Fidesz party.
He noted that as well as opposition collaboration in the capital, the opposition has agreed to cooperate on candidates in 21 county seats and in 89 localities with over 10,000 residents.
Tóth said locals had a democratic right to self-government, so the opposition wants to establish a new framework for dialogue in local governments. Employee representatives should be given the chance to help the municipality form its economic development concepts, he added.
Tóth underlined the importance of a free media and freedom of expression, and he said priority areas for left-wing local governments would be social services, education and climate protection.