A little Dubai in Budapest? The Hungarian capital, in the hands of environmentalists, and the government are torn apart over an ambitious real estate project led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban and entrusted to the United Arab Emirates. The two countries will sign an agreement to realize this project, which aims to modernize a now almost abandoned station and its surroundings, for an amount of five billion euros.
According to a document published this Thursday, January 11 on the Hungarian government website, the authorities will sell this land located not far from the center of the capital to a private entity chosen by the Emirates, “without proceeding to a call for tenders”. In return for this investment, described as “major importance”, Hungary undertakes to carry out infrastructure works “to the tune of at least 800 million euros”.
But in this bastion of opposition at the local level, its detractors do not view this new project favorably. “We don’t know exactly what the investor is going to build,” the environmentalist mayor Gergely Karacsony told the press alongside other local elected officials. Pleading for fewer towers and more green spaces, he would like to make this metropolis of 2.6 million inhabitants, attracting partygoers and tourists, a place “more welcoming and respectful of the environment”.
According to a survey conducted in December among a thousand residents by the Median and 21 Research Center institutes, 61% of the capital’s population is opposed to the initiative. These plans were initially revealed in November by the investigative site Vsquare, which specializes in Central Europe. Entrusted according to his information to the real estate group Emaar Properties, it plans the construction of a skyscraper of 220 meters, beyond the maximum authorized limit of 90 meters.
In December, Construction Minister Janos Lazar defended the project, dubbing it “maxi Dubai” in reaction to press headlines referring to a “mini Dubai”. The result “will not be mediocre”, he insisted: it is an “international level” project which will emerge from the ground.
