Juhász leading protestors carrying a banner asking “And how much has Fidesz stolen from you?”
“We are talking about a criminal matter, and if we cannot work together in this, how do we want to replace the criminal system? If necessary, we will protest every week!” – Péter Juhász, Budapest District 5 assemblyman (opposition party Together)
“Ten million people are in danger!” – Zoltán Vajda, protest organizer
Several hundred anti-corruption protesters marched Wednesday evening from the Budapest 5th district mayor’s office to the flat of its current mayor, Péter Szentgyörgyvölgyi. Responding to a call from a district assemblyman, Péter Juhász, the crowd assembled to express to district leaders its dissastisfaction with the corruption surrounding the sale of district-owned property. The shouting continued the following morning in the district council meeting.
A little over a thousand RSVP’d on Facebook that they would attend the demonstration scheduled for 6 pm in front of the district mayor’s office at 4 Érzsébet square. However, half an hour before the start of the event only around 100 were gathered around the platform mounted to the back of a light commercial vehicle.
People chatted amiably as several well-known public figures appeared, including former MSZP MP Tamás Bauer and even television personality István Vágó. The event organizer, Péter Juhász, took the stage a little after 6 pm to address the crowd that had swollen to around 1000 people or more.
Juhász greeted them by saying he hadn’t expected so many to turn out and expressing his satisfaction with the absence of party banners despite the fact he himself is a member of a political party. “There are parties that are devoted to this matter,” Juhász told the crowd, “but the reason we are gathered here is not a party matter but a criminal matter.”
He continued by saying that corrupt politicians must resign because they were not elected to steal our property, but rather to use it productively, to grow it and to provide a better life for us. He then summarized the events precipitating the demonstration.
He mentioned the inexplicable growth of former District 5 Mayor Antal Rogán’s real estate assets, as well as that of Fidesz vice-chairman Lajos Kósa and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, which Juhász said was indicative of “the mafia-like theft of public assets not only taking place in the downtown but in many places throughout the country.”
“Péter Szentgyörgyvölgyi continued where Rogán left off,” Juhász told the crowd.
“(Szentgyörgyvölgyi) unlawfully rented a district flat, unlawfully wired the purchase price, which itself was unlawful. I reported him but the prosecutors believe no crime took place because the HUF 350 million that the local government spent on 9 Szerb street was not a renovation but a maintenance,” Juhász said, adding that “since the matter came to light, the mayor announced that he would return the flat but hasn’t moved out since.”
After that Juhász passionately called on Szentgyörgyvölgyi to immediately resign as mayor. The crowd chanted “resign!”.
The Together politician then cited several properties sold for significantly less than what they were worth by the local government, about which Juhász said he had also filed a formal complaint, also rejected on the grounds that the sales transpired in a lawful manner. Juhász said that “in comparison to these transactions (convicted 7th district socialist mayor) György Hunvald was a rank amateur, and former city deputy mayor Miklós Hagyó did not understand either what corruption was!”
“We must stop the squandering of real estate assets,” said Juhász, adding that legal procedures under way had succeeded in preventing the sale of commercial property but not the sale of flats. He vowed that if in the future they want to steal a district-owned flat for one of their friends, “I myself will offer to buy it so that the downtown community can buy the flat and then give it over to poor people who really need a flat.”
“We’re calling this the downtown protection action plan,” announced Juhász, who called on everyone to work together, reminding them that “we are talking about a criminal matter, and if we cannot work together in this, how do we want to replace the criminal system? If necessary, we will protest every week!”
“The head of the Fidesz parliamentary delegation is the one who sets the example for all the Fidesz members of parliament. The fish rots from the head down. If we can take down Rogán’s man, then there is a chance for the opposition to change the regime.”
Juhász was followed by Zoltán Vajda, organizer of the Facebook group “Sixty thousand against the taking away of private pension funds,” one of a number of civil groups participating in a series of demonstrations in the last quarter of 2014.
Vajda warned that the government “could take any private property from anybody at any time,” and that for this reason “10 million people are in danger”. He mentioned that the Strasbourg decision awarding damages to a former tobacconist whose livelihood was taken away by the nationalization of the tobacco retailing industry was a “good example of how the European Union will protect us if our own country is not capable of doing so.” However, he warned that “this is not good”, to which the crowd responded by chanting “We won’t allow it! Europe!” Vajda concluded his speech by announcing “We are Europe!”
After that the crowd started marching along a previously designated course, stopping at every building affected by the property scandal to chant “They also stole here!”. It sometimes happened that residents sympathized with the demonstrations and started shouting from the windows “Orbán, get out!” But some threw soil from potted plants at the demonstrators.
Upon arriving to 9 Szerb street, Juhász placed a memorial plaque on the building in which Szentgyörgyvölgyi’s flat can be found and where Árpad Habony, personal advisor to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, also resides under mysterious circumstances (he neither officially owns nor rents a flat there). The plaque reads “From this house the upstanding police took away Árpád Habony, Péter Szentgyörgyvölgyi, and Antal Rogán, partners in crime – erected by a grateful posterity.”
The next morning
At Péter Juhász’s invitation we visited the open district assembly meeting the following morning, in which both the mayor and Juhász participated. Juhász began by announcing that he had resigned from the Education Committee because theft and robbery was taking place in the district which he was not willing to assist, and he did not wish to participate in the assembly meeting. After that he gave Szentgyörgyvölgyi a report on matters involving corruption, including those pertaining to the Klotild Palace.
Juhász then pointed out to the mayor that, unlike his predecessor, he does not enjoy immunity from prosecution and warned him to be careful lest he be the one that ends up in prison. To this Szentgyörgyvölgyi responded that Juhász had not participated in the work of the district assembly to date. Juhász rejected this, and after telling the mayor not to lie, left the chamber.
After this district assemblyman Pál Steiner (MSZP), who served as district mayor prior to Rogán, delivered the results of a report in his capacity as chairman of the district financial committee. Reviewing in detail the eight properties in question, Steiner informed the district assembly that his committee had found that the renting out and subsequent sale of the properties took place in accordance with the rules and formally met the legal requirements. He added that his committee was authorized to examine the legality of the transactions, and not their economics or the relationship between the beneficiaries and district officials.
Steiner announced that he had learned from the notary that an investigation would be launched into the matter. District notary Zoltán Sélley, however, subsequently denied this when speaking to the press. According to district officials there is no investigation, just a complaint.
Deputy mayor László Böröcz believes the question is whether the district is allowed to offer renters discounts on the purchase of their premises, to which Sélley answered that it was. Böröcz added that, according to the audit made by state examiners in 2013, the downtown’s assets had increased, not decreased, and that huge projects had taken place, and the district continuously developed.
Apart from the words exchanged with Juhász, Szentgyörgyvölgyi did not comment on the matter.
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