After four and a half years as mayor, Pál Veres is not running again in Miskolc.
This news was conditionally published in the press on Tuesday. Now the politician wrote in a long post on Facebook why he decided, following the events of the last few months, that he did not want to remain city manager.
It was not the local government management, which was becoming more fragile due to budget deductions, government austerity, and rising energy prices, but the political plant itself.
According to Veres, he didn’t even become a politician because he couldn’t get used to “feigned friendship, false alliance, duplicity, disunity, bloody intrigues, disregard for goals, convictions and humanity, short-term interest politics, self-interest disguised as politics. It was disheartening and outrageous to see the manifestations of those who, in search of dubious political capital, did not shy away from tarnishing the city’s reputation. It was shocking to see how many people are not interested in rationality, professional arguments, the interests of Miskolc and the people of Miskolc, how much more important personal ambitions and political revenge are than the city itself. I learned a lot, I changed a lot, but my basic attitude did not change. There is still no political goal for me that can override humanity and professional arguments, there is no personal ambition that can be more important than the interest of the community, and there is no interest that can be more important than Miskolc,” writes Pál Veres.
For 27 years, he was largely successful as a leader, school director, and education expert, and he thought for a while as mayor as well, finding the right balance between work and private life. However, according to his family, this was not entirely successful. Her children have grown up, her son started a family, a grandson was born, whom she can’t see as often as she would like, and it’s all up to her.
Veres finds that fewer and fewer people believe in what he,
“that civil courage and the freedom of non-partisanship can benefit the city.”
He is proud of the fact that he was able to repel even the darkest political attacks, and he is the mayor despite the fact that some of his allies openly wished for his downfall. He wants a successor for the city, “for whom the city is important, not power, and who is what he says he is.”
Although he does not mention a person or party name in his post, he was probably referring to the Democratic Coalition, which openly made it clear last October that it was withdrawing from Pál Veres and launching an independent candidate, Andrea Hegedűs. Among other things, the party’s leadership did not like the way Veres maintains contact with the government on behalf of the municipality. Ferenc Gyurcsány, the president of the DK, held a briefing in Miskolc in the company of LMP co-president Erzsébet Schmuck. The latter politician justified the fact that the LMP no longer supports the mayor of Miskolc, that Veres’ policy is not green enough.
Veres commented on the DK’s move by saying that the leaders of the DK like opposition politics, and this will give them the best chance to be in the opposition again in Miskolc from 2024.
The DK representatives did not even vote on this year’s budget of the Miskolc municipality.
In Tuesday’s press reports, it was possible to read that Veres will cite health reasons, and not that his supporters have run out. According to a local newspaper, what happened can be seen as a great victory for DK. Borsod24 understands that the DK would recommend László Barkai, the former director of the Children’s Health Center in Miskolc, as a joint candidate to the other parties, but no decision has been made on this yet.
Over two thousand people responded to Veres’ post on Wednesday. József Tóth-Szántai, the mayoral candidate of Fidesz, also commented under the post. He was shocked by Veres’ decision, he would have gladly fought with him for the trust of the people of Miskolc. He also wrote, “I look forward to your experience as a city manager and as a person in the future.”
