Public transport stopped due to « solidarity tax »

The City Hall of the Hungarian capital Budapest, led by the liberal opposition, stopped on Friday for ten minutes to protest against the amount of a tax imposed by the metropolis by the Conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban in order to support small cities.

The protest aims to draw attention to the government’s taxes asphyxiate Budapest and including the basic public services are now threatened, « said the mayor of Budapest, the liberal ecological Gergely Karácsony.

Relationships are very tense between Orban’s government and the administration of the capital, which, like other big cities of Hungary, is led by the opposition. These tensions have increased in recent months after the Government has asked for the richest mayor of the country ‘to pay a’ solidarity tax ‘to support the smaller localities, where the major politicians in the Prime Minister’s Fidesz Party are.

The mayor of Budapest states that he does not oppose this tax itself, but to the amount to pay. « The authorities illegally learned 69 million euros from Budapest accounts, » said Gergely Karácsony, referring to a decision of the Constitutional Court that austerity measures imposed on the capital are unconstitutional.

He argued that if the Government retains this money, the basic services in the city with 1.7 million inhabitants will not be assured and the public transport will be reduced.

In reply, the Government accuses the mayor of poor administration of the city and cataloged as abuse and blackmail his protest in which he temporarily stopped public transport.