The mayors of Warsaw and Budapest rebel against the veto of the EU budget

Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski at a press conference following the presidential elections on July 13, 2020, in Warsaw.AGENCJA GAZETA / Reuters

Rafal Trzaskowski, mayor of Warsaw, and Gergely Karacsony, councilor of Budapest, have sent a letter to the EU Committee of the Regions on Tuesday in which they accuse the leaders of their respective national governments of putting their "selfish interests" before their veto the community budget.

Last week, the executives of Poland and Hungary blocked the approval of the recovery fund for covid-19 and the European budget 2021-2027, endowed in more than one trillion euros, due to their rejection of linking the funds with the compliance with the rule of law.

In the letter, Trzaskowski and Karacsony, who are two of the most visible faces of the opposition to the ultra-conservative parties that lead these countries, suggest that Brussels cooperate "directly" with the regions of the member states.

"We believe this veto is completely unjustifiable," said Trzaskowski.

The position of both councilors shows the great divide between the capitals and large cities of Hungary and Poland with respect to the rest of the country.

Trzaskowski, who has ruled Warsaw since 2018, was the candidate of the center-right Civic Platform party in this summer's presidential elections, where he lost by a slim margin to the candidate of the formation of Law and Justice (PiS), Andrzej Duda.

During his tenure, the 48-year-old politician has championed the rights of the LGTBI collective, which generated a reactionary wave from the most conservative sectors of the country together with the Catholic Church.

His pro-European vocation prompted him to rebuild Warsaw's ties with Brussels.

The mayor represents the most progressive, open and tolerant Poland, contrary to the traditional Poland defended by PiS.

The same thing happens to his Hungarian counterpart, Gergely Karacsony, who in 2019 managed to wrest the mayor of Budapest from the all-powerful Fidesz party, led by Viktor Orbán.

The victory of this 44-year-old ecologist sociologist was the first setback at the polls for the ultra-nationalist leader who has ruled with an absolute majority in the Central European country for a decade.

The election of Karacsony, achieved thanks to the union of all the opposition parties to Orbán, brought fresh air and some hope to those sectors of society that feel abandoned by Orbán and who are eager to channel the relationship with the EU.

The news of the veto of the Polish and Hungarian governments on the European budget, when these two countries belong to the group of Member States that receive the most aid from the EU, has generated much controversy internationally, but also within their borders.

Despite the authoritarian drift of both Executives, which has caused Brussels to launch an offensive to stop what were once two model integration students, Hungarian society, but especially Polish society, are firm defenders of the community project, as shown by the annual Eurobarometer polls.

In 2019, more than 50% of the Hungarian population (9.8 million inhabitants) had a positive image of the EU and trusted the EU institutions.

European support in Poland, with 38 million inhabitants, exceeds 90%.

So it will be necessary to see how the citizens of both countries, harshly punished by the second wave of the pandemic, on whom the threat of a mild but striking recession looms, after years of economic growth, are willing to support the Ordain that its leaders have launched to Europe and whose consequences are yet to be seen.