Orban’s Vision for Budapest Raises Fears Over a Historic Skyline

12 comments

1. *From Bloomberg News reporter Veronika Gulyas:*

   The swathe of railway tracks, rusting pylons, dilapidated yellow buildings and poisoned earth are a lingering reminder of Budapest’s time as part of the old Eastern bloc.

   Yet the area up the road from one of the Hungarian capital’s most iconic squares and thermal baths has also become the latest battleground for competing visions of the future.

   Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government plans to turn the land into a €5.8 billion ($6.3 billion) Dubai-style hub and signed an agreement with the United Arab Emirates in March. Hungary’s parliament approved the project, and the rehousing of the few residents in the area has already started.

   The development, though, has triggered a backlash from Budapest City Council, which wants to build affordable housing and argues high-rise apartments instead will blight the city’s skyline. The problem is that it can do little to stop the project, nor does it have the money for an alternative.

2. Burdzs Kalifa of Orbanistan? Nothing can sound sillier.

3. I visited Budapest a few months ago, and I found it beautiful just the way it is. While the city could benefit from some improvements for its citizens and appearance, turning it into another Dubai would be a real shame for such a historic and beautiful place.

4. Budapest is a beautifull city. I visited about half a year ago. One thing stood out though. Every single building has some sort of blemish. Like a crack, a bot of loose plaster, etc. The only exception to this is the governmental building. Maybe some of that EU money could be spent on patching up the city a bit.

5. Ew, why Dubai style?

6. Hungaria?

7. Hungary is just a trojan to access the European market without many problems.
   Chinese EVs, autocratic ideas etc.. are going to be spread more and more from Hungary and since the European Union is weak, nobody is going to react to it.

   The EU just watched Orban destroy his country without doing much and they are still in Europe, nobody is taking any responsibilities to take any actions against that country, nobody wants to kick anybody from the EU and the bureaucracy is what will actually destroy us.

   Every day is worse than yesterday for the EU.

   Military, fiscal and political integration, a system to kick autocracies like Hungary from the EU and a realistic project on energy with nuclear plants (since we let the renewable market be TOTALLY controlled by China, well played eu lawmakers).

8. we have 2x more people than the slovaks and nobody though of shooting him yet

9. I imagined he was going for some pagodas, given his bromance with emperor Xi Jinping.

10. The skyline is where the line will be drawn. Not the sell out to China and Russia

11. Orban knows he’s on the way out so he’s capitalizing as much as he can while he still can by brokering shady deals with China, UAE and whomever can afford his under the table fees.

    Just like the case with Trump, it will take decades to repair the damage that’s being done.

12. HAHAHA Orban wants to try the Chinese debt trap. Enjoy future generations of Hungarians. Chinese workers will come in an build shit infrastructure, shit on your environment and rules and leave afterward. You will be left with crumbling infrastructure and huge debt.

    Orban really know how to do something well. Too bad it is corruption.