The government’s “pushing” to continue the Budapest-Belgrade railway project amid the coronavirus epidemic is a “serious crime”, opposition LMP group leader László Lóránt Keresztes told an online press conference on Thursday.
Keresztes said that return on the “extremely high” cost of investment was doubtful and suggested that the funds should be used towards reviving the economy once the epidemic is over.
Heated Parliamentary Debate on Budapest-Belgrade Railway Mega-project
Keresztes criticised the government for its plans to classify documents concerning the project, and said that neither the total cost, an estimated 1,000 billion forints (EUR 2,85 billion), nor the railway line’s future profitability was supported by calculations.
In another development, Keresztes welcomed the government’s postponing a planned upgrade of the Paks nuclear plant, and suggested that it was equal to the government’s “admitting that the project is not necessary”. “This could mean that the upgrade plans could eventually be dropped altogether,” he said.
LMP Calls for Redirecting Budapest-Belgrade Railway Project Funds to Restart Hungarian Economy
Keresztes criticised the government’s recent decision to go ahead with the secondary school final exams at the originally planned time, and said it was an “enormous risk” to hold the exams “at the peak of the epidemic in Hungary”.
Featured photo by Tamás Kovács/MTI