The stalled progress of the M0 ring road in the northern part of Buda is not only consigning local and passing motorists to further months or years in traffic purgatory. It has also led to a classic game of blame shifting and name-calling among the top two political figures in Budapest: Mayor Gábor Demszky and István Tarlós, the head of the Fidesz caucus in the city council, and the man who most recently tried to oust Demszky from his long rule of the capital.
The sparring starting on June 20, when Demszky said at a press conference that Tarlós, as former mayor of District III, is responsible for the fact that no agreement has been reached over the past decade on the route of the crucial highway. Now, according to Fidesz-friendly Magyar Hírlap, Tarlós is accusing Demszky of lying in making the charge – supporting his claims with 11 years’ of official decisions, letters and other documents.
The documents collected by Tarlós indicate that it was the district’s Socialist faction which proposed back in 1997 that the M0 not pass through the area, a decision apparently designed to better serve the residents living in Békásmegyer, where Routes 10 and 11 are being connected to form a part of the highway. The opinion of local government on the route has not changed since.
Tarlós also presented documents which revealed that the Free Democrat-led ministry of transport failed to deal with planning for the new route for several years, with then-minister János Kóka admitting in August of 2005 that the new route had not been properly planned.
While the move by Tarlós to back up his version of events with documentary evidence would seem to leave Demszky no option but to skulk away from the fight, given the growing discontent over the highway’s slow progress the mayor will probably feel obliged to come back again at Tarlós. One only wishes that they were forced to conduct their feud while sitting in traffic in an overheating car without air-conditioning somewhere near where the M0 would be now if the politicians responsible for this project hadn’t been asleep at the wheel for all these years.
