City with county rights

A city with county rights (or urban county, Hungarian: megyei jogú város, MJV) is a level of administrative subdivision in Hungary. Since 1994 all county seats are automatically awarded this status, and between 2012–2022 this was the only way a city could earn county rights. All cities earned this status before 2012 have retained their status and there is no way to revoke the title by the law. From 2006 until 2022, there were 23 cities with county rights,[1] and 25 since 1 May 2022.[2] Before 1950, cities with former "municipal rights" (törvényhatósági jogú város) had a similar status as the present urban counties.

Budapest is not considered an urban county and has a special capital city status among the other Hungarian cities.

Every city with county rights is allowed to be subdivided into districts. The representative body is the General Assembly (közgyűlés) which elects with the County Assembly a council that takes care of different tasks related to the county.[3] Cities with county rights performs the tasks and powers of the county as its own authority but must provide some public services to the whole or a large area of the county (eg. education, health services, cultural services). Assemblies of the county and the urban county cooperate via a coordination committee to prepare and coordinate common tasks.

History

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Between 1954 and 1971, the four largest regional cities received the megyei jogú város title. These were Debrecen, Miskolc, Pécs and Szeged. Then, from 1971 to 1989, the four previous cities and Győr were granted a new status known as "county city" (megyei város). This status was also extended to three other cities in 1989: Kecskemét, Nyíregyháza and Székesfehérvár (county seats and over 100,000 residents). After the end of Communism, this status was abolished and replaced by the urban counties. In 1990 the earlier eight megyei város and twelve additional cities became megyei jogú város which reached 50 thousand residents as limited by law. In 1994 all county seat earned the title by law modification (Salgótarján and Szekszárd became urban counties). In 2006 Érd also earned the title after demanded since residents exceeded 50 thousand by the 2000s. Though some of the cities which are not county seats meanwhile decreased under the limit, they still retained their status (Dunaújváros, Hódmezővásárhely, Nagykanizsa). Since 2012 it is declared by law that earlier earned status could not be lost, as well that cities need to become county seats before earning urban city title. In 2022 the law was amended that National Assembly can grant the status to any city annexed to the law as a list, and the same time named Baja and Esztergom in the annex.[4]

List

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Coats
of arms
City County Population
(2013)
Urban county
since
Mayor
  Baja   Bács-Kiskun 37 326 2022 Nyirati, Klára
  Békéscsaba   Békés 61 046   1990 Szarvas, Péter
  Debrecen   Hajdú-Bihar 204 333   1990 Papp, László
  Dunaújváros   Fejér 46 813   1990 Pintér, Tamás
  Eger   Heves 54 867   1990 Mirkóczi, Ádám
  Érd   Pest 63 333   2006 Csőzik, László
  Esztergom   Komárom-Esztergom 30 062 2022 Hernádi, Ádám
  Győr   Győr-Moson-Sopron 128 567   1990 Dézsi, Csaba András
  Hódmezővásárhely   Csongrád-Csanád 45 700   1990 Márki-Zay, Péter
  Kaposvár   Somogy 65 337   1990 Szita, Károly
  Kecskemét   Bács-Kiskun 111 863   1990 Szemereyné Pataki, Klaudia
  Miskolc   Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén 162 905   1990 Veres, Pál
  Nagykanizsa   Zala 49 070   1990 Balogh, László
  Nyíregyháza   Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg 118 185   1990 Kovács, Ferenc
  Pécs   Baranya 147 719   1990 Péterffy, Attila
  Salgótarján   Nógrád 37 199   1994 Fekete, Zsolt
  Sopron   Győr-Moson-Sopron 60 528   1990 Farkas, Ciprián
  Szeged   Csongrád-Csanád 161 837   1990 Botka, László
  Szekszárd   Tolna 33 599   1994 Ács, Rezső
  Székesfehérvár   Fejér 99 247   1990 Cser-Palkovics András
  Szolnok   Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok 73 193   1990 Szalay, Ferenc
  Szombathely   Vas 77 547   1990 Nemény, András
  Tatabánya   Komárom-Esztergom 67 406   1990 Szűcsné Posztovics, Ilona
  Veszprém   Veszprém 60 876   1990 Porga, Gyula
  Zalaegerszeg   Zala 59 618   1990 Balaicz, Zoltán

References

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  1. ^ "Cities with county rights (in Hungarian language)" (PDF). ksh.hu. Central Bureau of Statistics (Hungary). Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  2. ^ "Orbán Viktor: Esztergom minden magyarnak az otthona, a mi szellemi központunk" (in Hungarian). Telex.hu. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  3. ^ "2011/CLXXXIX. Legislation about the Local Councils in Hungary (in Hungarian language)". njt.hu. National law database. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  4. ^ 3. annex to the law 2011/CLXXXIX (effective: 1 May 2022) "Törvény erejénél fogva megyei jogú város 1. Baja 2. Esztergom"
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