Alexandra Szentkiralyi: We Will Fight the Battles Against Ideologically Driven City Leadership!

Mayor Gergely Karacsony and his allies are not concerned with the everyday problems of the people living and working in Budapest, but rather focused on meeting Brussels’ expectations. The consequences of this include the capital's near-bankruptcy, traffic chaos, and the organization of Pride, Alexandra Szentkirályi told Magyar Nemzet in an interview. The leader of the Fidesz group in the Budapest municipal assembly also spoke about how they are building their presence in the capital by staying in direct contact with the people.

Alexandra Szentkiralyi, leader of the Fidesz-KDNP group in the Budapest municipal assembly (Photo: Istvan Mirko)

One of your colleagues said you got stuck in traffic on the way to this interview. Has the traffic situation in the capital not improved even with the arrival of summer?

The traffic situation in Budapest is straight out of an apocalyptic movie. During the summer break, the traffic jams are even worse than during the school year. It's practically impossible to plan how long it will take to get from point A to point B. Not to mention that pedestrians and cyclists are breathing exhaust fumes in the sweltering heat because the city is at a standstill. Meanwhile, Gergely Karacsony and his team seem to care about everything except addressing real problems. This bankrupt city administration can organize a Pride event, but they are completely incapable of coordinating construction projects or managing public transport.

Karacsony would probably respond that life is just like that in a big city – c’est la vie.

I think people expect more from a mayor than just shrugging his shoulders. They want someone who will keep the city running.

He received a constructive proposal from your side.

We proposed that the Chain Bridge and the lower embankment on the Pest side should be opened to traffic during the daytime. No one wants to sit in a traffic jam in 40-degree heat, and because of the scorching weather, the embankment is completely deserted, with no pedestrians in sight. Gergely Karacsony and the Tisza Party–David Vitezy group didn’t even want to hear about it. But let’s be honest, it’s a simple situation: fewer cars would have to navigate downtown closures if more of them could use the embankment stretch.

However, they did vote for the city’s much-criticized budget. How do you explain that?

Let’s be accurate: the alliance including Gergely Karacsony, the Tisza Party, David Vitezy and the Democratic Coalition (DK) simply reapproved the same bankrupt budget as before, with a few cosmetic tweaks. They are in full agreement on all the major issues. What we occasionally see is just some elbowing around the gravy train.

So we’re still stuck where we were before?

Nothing was resolved at Monday’s city assembly. The bankruptcy issue is still hanging over our heads! All that happened was they complied with the court’s ruling by entering the amount of the solidarity contribution and pairing it with fictitious revenue lines. But the gaping hole they blew in the budget last December is still there. At best, they’ve bought themselves a little time, but the clock is ticking—right down to insolvency. And then what will they say? That they bankrupted Budapest in a year and still have no solution? The only "step forward" is that the city budget is no longer unlawful, but it's still in the red for the second half of the year.

Organizing the Pride event couldn’t have been cheap either. What do you estimate it cost the city?

This isn’t the city’s money, but taxpayers’ money! Conservatively, they may have burned through hundreds of millions of forints in public funds for giant screens, sound systems, stages, wages for city employees involved in organizing, and for the LGBTQ propaganda materials produced and distributed by the mayor’s team.

For a municipality teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, that’s bound to come at a cost. And as a recent survey by the Nezopont Institute showed, Pride is a minority issue, with less than half the public supporting it. Yet the entire opposition, including Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony, lined up behind Pride and fully embraced it, which even by basic political logic doesn’t really make sense.

That shouldn’t be surprising, because this was an assignment from Brussels. The president of the European Commission stated that there must be a Pride event, so the opposition organized one. That’s the basic political math as I see it. We even had a sizable EU oversight delegation here, including 71 MEPs, an EU commissioner, and an EP vice president. That was quite the spectacle. No wonder Karacsony had to highlight in his speech that they support Ukraine’s EU accession, although that message was completely overshadowed by the drag queen show that followed. The bottom line is, Brussels wrote the script, and even the casting is clear: the Left’s role is to force unpopular issues down people’s throats while steering opposition voters toward Peter Magyar and the Tisza Party.

Still on the topic of Pride, David Vitezy felt that you insulted the participants and even called on you to apologize. What’s your view on that?

I think the ones to apologize are those who pushed the tasteless writhing of drag queens, or men dressed as women, into people's faces in broad daylight on the streets of Budapest.

After the Vienna Pride, what are your impressions of the Budapest Pride?

I still believe kids shouldn’t be watching drag queen shows, and that there isn’t a single street in Budapest where a Pride parade belongs. Let’s be honest, the overwhelming majority of people react negatively to this. But perhaps the most outrageous thing was what a teacher from the Tisza Party said – that LGBTQ sensitivity training should begin in kindergartens. She even boasted that they deliberately ignore current child protection laws and are willing to push gender propaganda into children’s minds in defiance of the law. That’s disgraceful. Parents don’t entrust their children to teachers so they can be taught this kind of content at school.

In light of David Vitezy’s political actions and involvement in municipal matters, would you again consider pulling out of the race and supporting his mayoral candidacy?

David Vitezy abused the trust of right-leaning voters. People hoped he would rise above the Karacsony-style liberal-leftist politics. He promised to replace them. But now it’s clear he’s no different from them. In fact, on the most important issues, he consistently votes with them.

It’s uncomfortable even to see the level of control councilors of the Tisza Party are under, says the  leader of the ruling parties' group in the Budapest assembly (Photo: Istvan Mirko/MI)

Despite the irresponsible financial management, traffic chaos, the tasteless spectacle of Pride, permissive attitudes toward drug use, and in general, a worldview that flies in the face of common sense, the opposition remains more popular than Fidesz in Budapest. In fact, a recent poll by the Republikon Institute found that support for the governing parties in the capital is at a record low. Based on your experience, is the situation really that bad?

Gergely Karacsony and his team just laugh at off people’s everyday reality from the city hall. The mayor said that if there is a traffic jam, people should get out of their cars and walk, or that during Pride, parents should take their children to other parts of the city. This shows a level of cynicism and detachment from real-life problems that, in my view, cannot bring meaningful results in the long run. While Karacsony and his allies are busy pushing ideological agendas and prioritizing rainbow flags, ordinary people simply want to live and move around in their city. We are working to solve problems that affect the daily lives of the capital's residents. That is why we want to address the issue of homelessness, improve public safety on the streets, rid the city of drugs and their consequences, and fix the capital's roads. I think these are everyday issues that everyone in Budapest agrees on. So why doesn't the city government deal with these issues instead of organizing Pride, for example?

Since you became the leader of the Fidesz group in the Budapest assembly, there’s been a noticeable push toward rebuilding. Although the 2029 municipal elections are still far off, it’s never too early to prepare. Where do things stand now?

A lot of energetic, young representatives have joined the Budapest general assembly and the Fidesz faction. They understand urban issues, many have experience in working with local municipalities, and they have the courage to stand up and fight against ideologically driven city management. At the same time, we absolutely rely on our seasoned, 'black belt' city politicians. We had several mayors in the assembly during the last term, and we still maintain close, active contact with them. They just aren’t on the front lines of local politics at the moment. Everyone is working in the area where they are most effective. We’re continuing to build on this. 

What you’ve described is a sharp contrast to how things seem to be going within the Tisza Party…

Peter Magyar has issued a gag order to the members of the Tisza faction in the municipal assembly. He’s muzzled them, and he holds the key. Take Kinga Kollar, for example, last time Magyar didn’t even let her speak at the microphone. When we tried to ask the MEP for the Tisza what she had in mind when she spoke out against Hungary in Brussels, Peter Magyar didn’t allow her to answer. She had to sit there in silence for the entire session. Even from the outside, it’s uncomfortable to see how tightly controlled the representatives of the Tisza Party are.

The Fidesz team seems very active on social media, with interesting posts and videos. But are you also trying to connect with people in person?

While Tisza Party is essentially a digitally organized formation, the real strength of the alliance of the Fidesz and the Christian Democrats (KDNP) lies in real communities. That tradition is still alive. Over the past few months, we’ve visited the outer and suburban districts, talked to a lot of people, and listened to their complaints and insights about how the city is functioning. Although nearly two-thirds of Budapest’s population lives in the outer districts, the leftist city leadership can’t see past the Grand Boulevard, and that shows in how the capital is run.

When you’re out and about in the city, do people approach you to talk about the capital's issues?

I think this is really about staying grounded in reality. When people stop me on the street, they’re — to put it mildly — very critical of Karacsony and the city leadership. Most of them complain about traffic congestion, but many also express frustration over the general inaction of the mayor. Budapest residents are upset that, while the city is  on the brink of bankruptcy, they spent 50 billion forints on the landfill at Rakosrendezo. A frequent complaint is that all the money has vanished — specifically the 214 billion forints in reserves left over from Istvan Tarlos’s administration — and yet Karacsony and his team have no substantial developments to show for it. People are frustrated that the city leadership’s answer to everything is that there is no money.

So where could that enormous amount of money have gone? Gergely Karacsony was already talking about a lack of funds practically the day after he took office in 2019. How do you explain that?

In recent years, the Budapest municipality has essentially operated as a cash distribution hub, and Karacsony and his team planned it that way from the start.  A giant crew, composed of dozens of old pre-2010 liberal left-wing advisors and municipal company executives, has been sustained this way. That’s how these figures survived the political 'ice age.' There are plenty of 'Gyurcsany orphans' still embedded in the municipal management who have no business being there anymore. Imre Martha, Tibor Draskovics, and many others are still on the payroll, which is quite extensive. Less than a year ago, Karacsony paid out over 170 million forints in bonuses to municipal company executives from the very money he’s claimed non-existent since 2019. In order for the city to function better, this money-siphoning must be stopped. We will do this if we win the trust of the voters, but until then, we will work with all means at our disposal to make the capital more livable. One thing is certain: we will not let the people of Budapest down the way Karacsony and his colleagues are doing.