👉 According to Gergely Karácsony, everything would be perfect if the “evil government” were not punishing Budapest residents with its so-called punitive tax policy. But what do the facts show?
In 2019, Gergely Karácsony took over the capital with HUF 214 billion in reserves. Six years later, we find ourselves in a situation where the country’s wealthiest city has been driven to the brink of bankruptcy, while this year’s budget is based on fictitious revenues.
🟠 For the government, the development of Budapest has always been a top priority—and it will remain so.
In recent years, the Fidesz government has invested several thousand billion forints in the nation’s capital, and numerous large-scale healthcare, education, tourism, and cultural projects are currently underway.
The greatest ally of good governance is reality.
Our political community continues to commit itself to ensuring peace, growth, and security in Budapest and throughout Hungary.
According to Gergely Karácsony, everything here in the capital would be perfect if the evil government were not punishing Budapest residents with its so-called punitive tax policy. But the truth could not be further from what Gergely Karácsony is claiming.
So let’s actually look at the facts. Gergely Karácsony has been mayor since 2019—for six years now. He took over a capital city that was already developing, after the government had carried out numerous investments during the nine years preceding his term. And these developments were not halted by the government during Karácsony’s time in office either.
He took over the city with HUF 214 billion in reserves, and in the span of six years he has managed to run things into such disarray that it became questionable whether the city could even close the current year at the budgetary level.
The capital has continuously adopted budgets—now for the second consecutive time in this cycle—that effectively include fictitious revenues. To be clear for viewers: this means that Gergely Karácsony lists items on the revenue side of the budget—specific figures—that he knows perfectly well will never actually materialize.
1️⃣ “Appeal to facts” – selective use of numbers
“Back in 2019, the capital was taken over with reserves of 214 billion forints.”
🔹 Technique: building authority through numbers
🔹 Problem:
- it is not made clear how much of this amount was actually freely usable,
- there is no mention of the pandemic, the energy crisis, or inflation,
- there is no context: how did the financial trajectories of other major cities develop during the same period?
👉 Framing: “there was money → now there isn’t → therefore the city leadership must be incompetent”
2️⃣ “They bankrupted it” – strong emotional labeling
“They bankrupted the country’s richest city.”
🔹 Technique: dramatization + stigmatization
🔹 Fact:
- legally, there is no bankruptcy procedure,
- “bankruptcy” here is a political metaphor, not an economic category.
👉 Effect: fear-mongering and reinforcing the perception of incompetence.
3️⃣ “Fictitious revenues” – an unproven accusation
“This year’s budget is based on fictitious revenues.”
🔹 Technique: vague accusation
🔹 Missing:
- which revenues exactly?
- according to what calculation are they “fictitious”?
- has there been any independent professional assessment on this?
👉 Goal: to sow suspicion without making a verifiable claim.
4️⃣ The government as the “good steward” – self-glorification
“Several thousand billion forints have been spent on the capital.”
🔹 Techniques:
- quantitative exaggeration (“several thousand billion”),
- listing projects without any concrete impact assessment.
🔹 Omission:
- these are state investments, not part of the city’s own budget,
- many projects were removed from municipal control by political decisions.
👉 Narrative: “we provide → they mess it up”
5️⃣ Declaration of moral superiority
“The main ally of a good government is reality.”
🔹 Technique: moral exclusion
🔹 Message:
- anyone who disagrees is against reality itself,
- there is no debate, only “good” and “bad” sides.
👉 A classic authoritarian communication formula.
6️⃣ Closing slogan – a promise package without content
“Peace, prosperity, and security.”
🔹 Technique: empty, positive buzzwords
🔹 Absent:
- how,
- from what resources,
- for whom,
- at what cost.
👉 Emotional closure, so no questions remain.
🎯 Overall picture
This text is not really about how Budapest functions. It is about:
- shifting responsibility (blaming Gergely Karácsony),
- self-justification (“we have done everything”),
- and constructing a black-and-white political reality.
💡 Instead of real debate:
numbers without context + accusations without evidence + claims of moral superiority.