The government “put a knife to the city’s back” five years ago, Karácsony said, adding that ever since he had become mayor, “the government has made more and more decisions aimed at bleeding the city out”.

“By now we are at the point where the city will no longer be functional unless we do something,” Karácsony said, according to MTI.

He said his city administration had done everything possible in the past five years to ensure that “Budapest residents are not affected by the punishment the government is meting out to the city’s leaders”, adding that the palette of public services was broadened rather than restricted under his tenure.

Concerning the government’s measures, Karacsony noted the introduction of the “hypocritically named solidarity tax”, the amount of which “has been multiplied by 12 in recent years”. The city had to decide whether to pass that burden on to its citizens “or use the remaining institutions of the rule of law and obtain justice,” Karacsony said.

The mayor said the city had drafted this year’s budget based on a solidarity tax “whose constitutionality cannot be questioned”, but he added that the city is suing the government over the exact amount to be paid. He also referred to an earlier ruling by the Constitutional Court that the city cannot be a “net contributor” to the central budget.

The mayor said the city has paid HUF 32 billion in solidarity tax to the central budget since the start of this year, which he said was in proportion with what the central budget owed to the city to finance public services. “But the absurd situation is that the capital will soon spend more on the state than on its most important public services,” he said, adding that the government was demanding that the city contribute another 51 billion forints to the central budget.

“The state has stripped us of the funds we think is legitimately ours; we need to act now and save the money of Budapest residents,” he said.

Szentkirályi Criticizes Rákosrendező Purchase

Alexandra Szentkirályi, the Fidesz group leader in the Budapest city assembly, criticised Karácsony’s administration for spending HUF 51 billion on the city’s Rákosrendező development area when they needed this amount to avoid bankruptcy.

“Karácsony and his administration say 51 billion would make the difference in avoiding the city council’s bankruptcy and the need to halve public transport services,” Szentkirályi said on Facebook. “Then why did they spend this 51 billion on Rákosrendező?”

“A court ruling has reaffirmed that the coalition of Gergely Karácsony, the Tisza Party, the Democratic Coalition and [city councillor Dávid] Vitézy is responsible for Budapest’s bankruptcy,” she said, accusing the mayor of having mishandled the capital’s finances for six years.

She said last week’s binding ruling by the Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, proved that Karacsony’s administration had “misled the public” in connection with the solidarity tax.

“They knew the budget was unlawful and what could be expected, yet they squandered what money they had left,” Szentkirályi said. “They bought Rakosrendezo for 50 billion, paid out millions in bonuses, spent money on a useless real estate agency and a bicycle path communications campaign.”

She said Fidesz and Budapest residents expected the “Karácsony-Tisza-DK-Vitézy coalition” to take responsibility for, and come up with, a solution to “Budapest’s bankruptcy”.