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The progressive mayors of Budapest, Warsaw, Prague and Bratislava sealed on Monday, December 16, a "free cities pact" to weigh against the populists in power in their respective countries. It was in Budapest that the leaders of the four capitals signed this alliance initiated by the new center-left mayor of the Hungarian capital. These 4 mayors who claim to be pro-European also wish to fight against the plunder of European funds by their respective governments.
With our correspondent in Budapest , Florence La Bruyère
They are young, progressive and they are committed to promoting the rule of law, tolerance and social justice in their city - values which have been abused by their respective governments. But the main objective of the leaders of the 4 central European capitals - Zdenek Hrib (Prague), Gergely Karacsony (Budapest), Matus Vallo (Bratislava), Rafal Trzaskowski (Warsaw) is to dialogue with Brussels to gain direct access to European funds.
Currently it is governments that distribute the overwhelming majority of the community windfall. A windfall that often enriches those close to the government, as in Hungary. " It is scandalous that European money finances autocracy and the oligarchs " , deplored the mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karacsony.
While the Polish government is losing interest in climate policy, the centrist mayor of Warsaw, Rafal Trzaskowski, wants his city to benefit from European funds to preserve the environment.
In Brussels, the European Commission is already working on this project to distribute community funds to large cities. The four MEPs from central Europe hope to convince the Commission to adopt it as soon as possible.