Vitezy announces candidacy for Budapest mayor

In a video streamed on Facebook, Vitezy pledged “real development rather than party political fights, empty promises and the shunning of responsibility”.

Among the problems currently facing Budapest, Vitezy mentioned a housing shortage, saying “there aren’t enough affordable homes for sale and rents are too high”.

He insisted that suburban public transport services were sub-standard, while health services were deteriorating. Budapest’s public areas “are unattractive”, he said, citing a dearth of parks and pedestrian areas. “Areas outside the Grand Boulevard have been neglected, with all funds used to develop the tourist-beaten tracks of the Inner City,” he said.

Those problems, Vitezy said, had been neglected because “Budapest has been made a battlefield of political parties … with the war between the two sides suffocating all developments: while the government blocks all major projects the city leadership acts as a martyr and falters — even when they have to opportunity to make progress.”

“We cannot wait for those to resolve the problems of Budapest who have caused those very problems,” Vitezy said, adding that he had comprehensive plans for “further developments, new parks, public spaces, renewal of the local train, new tramlines and affordable housing built on brownfield sites.”