"In the spirit of transparency and publicity, which are the most important tools in the fight against corruption, I offer one million forints from my mayoral salary," Karácsony said.Continue reading
After police officers conducted searches at the City Hall and the Budapest Municipal Property Management Center on Monday morning, Gergely Karácsony accused the police of becoming a propaganda tool of governing Fidesz. The Interior Ministry has now issued a statement rejecting the words of the mayor, saying that the police are carrying out their work free from party influence and in full compliance with the laws governing their activities.
As we have previously reported, on Monday, the police conducted searches at the offices and homes of Budapest deputy mayor Ambrus Kiss, and the Chief Notary and Budapest Capital City Property Management Center (BVFK) leader, Balázs J. Barts, in connection with the recordings in the City Hall case.
Later that day, Gergely Karácsony held a press conference, in which he claimed that the police arrived around the same time as the articles about the searches appeared in the pro-Fidesz media.
In a subsequent Facebook post, Karácsony said that he had called Interior Minister Sándor Pintér, demanding an explanation, and that he had firmly rejected and resented “the procedure the police are using to contribute to the smear campaign in the political interests of Fidesz.”
In reaction to the accusations by the Budapest mayor, the Interior Ministry (BM) issued a statement on Tuesday.
“Everyone can feel safe in Hungary- precisely because the police have been carrying out their work since 1991, free from party influence and in full compliance with the laws governing its activities, in a transparent way.”
“No one – be it a politician, intellectual, manual worker – has the right to question the full practical implementation of the proclaimed principle. Nor can anyone seek to change it, the BM stated.
The so-called City Hall case group involves four criminal proceedings, the ministry continued. The authorities suspect fraud, influence peddling, bribery, accepting bribes, abuse of office, and misappropriation of funds on the basis of thirteen allegations.
The ministry also recalled that one of the individuals who filed a complaint was Gergely Karácsony himself. “The mayor certainly expects the police to act competently and effectively within the legal framework. The two basic conditions for the effectiveness of the proceedings in the case group are the discovery of physical evidence and the retrieval of data stored in information systems. They must be located and seized where they can be found – if in a ministry, then there, if in an operating room, then there, if in City Hall, then there. The authorities have a duty to take action, whether the person making the allegation is homeless or an academic, a politician, or anyone else,” the ministry outlined.
The Interior Ministry pointed out that the authorities had carried out searches at twelve locations regarding the case on December 13, 2021. Yet the mayor – who was not subjected to coercive measures – has criticized the police presence in only three of the locations on his social media page.
In the featured photo illustration: Interior Minister Sándor Pintér. Photo by Zoltán Balogh/MTI