The Jakarta Post
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsLights go out on Hungary stadiums, theatres as energy crisis bites
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Set as preferred source
A detail of the first league football club FC Fehervar stadium is seen in Szekesfehervar, Hungary, on November 9, 2022. (AFP/Attila Kisbenedek)
R
ocketing energy bills are forcing Hungary to shutter libraries, theatres, swimming pools and even its new football stadiums for winter.
The state-of-the-art grounds -- symbols of right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban's 12 years in power -- are among a long list of buildings no longer able to cope with rising energy prices in the central European country.
Despite being one of the country's richest cities and being run by Orban's own party, Szekesfehervar is one of many closing its museums, libraries and theatres.
Its new 14,000-capacity city-run stadium also pulled down its shutters this month to save costs, said mayor Andras Cser-Palkovics.
"Community spaces are what make a city. No one was happy about the measures but they accepted that they are needed," Cser-Palkovics, a member of Orban's ruling Fidesz party, told AFP in Szekesfehervar's City Hall.
'Won't wait for miracles'
Like other cities, Szekesfehervar, 60 kilometres (37 miles) southwest of the capital Budapest, has tried to mitigate the effects of these closures.
More from The Weekender
Is AI really making us better workers?
AI can make our work faster and more polished. But by eliminating the struggle, mistakes and imperfections, it may also be eliminating some of the ways we learn and become better workers.
Travels in the land of Gen Z
To become a professor to Gen Z today is to take a disorienting journey to an exotic land. First of two parts.
More trains, more stations, but Greater Jakarta still isn’t connected
Jakarta now has more trains and stations. But getting to them from Depok, Bogor, Tangerang or Bekasi still means an ojek or a car ride.
