The costs of renaming public places in Budapest released

It may seem plausible to say that since the fall of communism Hungarian street names being changed happen on a much faster pace in Budapest now than it did before. What has remained in obscurity was the cost of this renewed culture war about which Atlatszo has requested information from the individual districts of Budapest.

The total cost of 5.3m HUF (ca. 18,000 EUR) will probably be exceeded in the next 12 months given many new renamings are still in the pipeline, and in spite of the disclosure obligation District IV, XVI and VII did not answer our FOIA requests. By looking at the books it can be stated that costs were usually split in two groups, first being the manufacturing cost of the items, second the additional bureaucratic costs (adjustments in registries and other documents). The Top 3 affected districts reported items mostly costing in the range of lower six digits HUF (300-1000 EUR) with District III taking the lead reporting total renaming costs of 1.4m HUF (4600 EUR), followed by District XIV and V (ca. 2300 EUR each).

The text was translated by atlatszo.hu’s volunteers.
Read the original article in Hungarian here.