Index – Belgium – An entrepreneur said to be close to the government can host the Vörösmarty square Christmas market
It is against the constitution. This is what Deputy Mayor Ambrus Kiss said at the last session of the Capital Assembly about the nationalization of the capital’s Podmaniczky, Vörösmarty and Széchenyi Squares, as well as Kossuth Lajos Street, effective August 1st. Gergely Karácsony added that it is different according to the position of the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice.
However, the parliamentary majority voted to amend the law, so Vörösmarty tér, which hosted the Budapest Christmas market for decades, was transferred to the state, and after the state handover, it was maintained and managed by the V. district municipality. (The capital management prepared and accepted a detailed inventory of assets for the mentioned areas in order to create a clear situation during the legal process. It turns out that the final balance of expenditure and income was positive in the case of the affected properties.)
Continuation of ownership and management rights of Vörösmarty tér District V and the capital immediately began negotiations regarding the operation of the square, as part of this
the Budapest Brand and Downtown Municipality also discussed the matter of organizing the Vörösmarty Square Christmas Market.
Although the 2021 Christmas market was unprofitable due to the corona epidemic and the resulting strict protection measures, but in view of the 180 million forint company virus profit of previous years, and the fact that the organizer Budapest Brand (BB) as a non-profit of the capital did its job, the costs were compensable, so it didn’t even occur to not organize it this year.
Budapest Brand started preparing for this year’s Christmas market in May, the nationalization plan was leaked later, and in July it immediately approached District V for consultation, but they did not receive an answer until September. We delayed the call for tenders for crafts by two months, so they would have agreed to carry it out in the final negotiation if District V had guaranteed BB the opportunity to organize for at least two years. According to the head of Budapest Brand Nonprofit Zrt., Csaba Faix, this was necessary in order to spread the expected loss over the two years’ fairs.
Vörösmarty Square is not available
During the negotiations, it quickly became clear that the Belváros–Lipotváros Municipality was thinking about a different concept. The public space would have been made available for 2022, the year hit by the energy crisis, but not for two years. In response to our question, they wrote:
In view of the responsibility assumed for the operation of Vörösmarty tér and for the people who live here, the City Council of Belváros wanted to establish a cooperation that is based on mutual satisfaction, on expected joint successes and, above all, on meeting the needs of the population, rather than on a pre-negotiated date. In view of all this, no agreement was reached between Budapest Brand and Belváros Municipality regarding the realization of this year’s fair.
I understand that for the market in front of the Szent István Basilica, a three-year public space use permit was granted by the district to the events organizer ltd., one of the stakeholders of which is the government. years earlier winning major government commissions revenues of billions could be booked.
The head of Budapest Brand reminded that while Vörösmarty tér belonged to the capital, it was used for five years during the Christmas market. Commenting on the unsuccessful negotiations with the district, Csaba Faix said:
We will not organize a Christmas market anywhere else.
The outline situation represents a loss for the capital because the BB returned its previously generated income to the organization and support of other cultural events in Budapest. Now, however, a company will be able to take home the profit generated at the fair.
Belváros–Lipótváros Municipality first informed our newspaper that the negotiations regarding the organization of the fair are still ongoing, so they cannot provide information until it is concluded, and when we notified it, we learned from another source that the company that manages the Szent István tér Advent fair, which was previously said to be close to the government. also the downtown Christmas beneficiary, they answered that
The organizers of the Advent Basilica event, which was twice voted the best in Europe, received support in principle for this year’s Vörösmarty square fair from the City Council of Belváros.
The district will hold its next council meeting on October 6, at which the issue of the Vörösmarty square fair will also be discussed.
(Cover photo: The Advent Basilica Christmas market on the Szent István Square in front of the Szent István Basilica on November 28, 2021. Photo: Zoltán Balogh/MTI)