In eastern Hungary, workers are preparing to build Europe’s largest battery factory for electric cars, to the displeasure of the region’s residents, who are mobilizing to stop the Chinese project and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s ambitions, AFP reports.

Incendiary public meetings, demonstrations that follow: Debrecen, Hungary’s second city, is concerned about the idea of ​​a new plant on its land, citing the environmental impact.

An unexpected setback for the megafactory of Chinese battery production

Viktor Orban, who for several years successfully wooed big names in the auto industry with tax breaks and low salaries, is not used to such resistance.

German car manufacturers Audi and Mercedes already have factories in Hungary that are currently being converted to assemble electric models. Another large German car manufacturer, BMW, also settled in Hungary with an investment of two billion euros.

Conditions in Hungary are ideal for Chinese battery giant CATL, which last August announced a €7.3 billion investment for a plant near Debrecen. It is a veritable mega-plant that, when ready in three years, will have an annual capacity of 100 gigawatt-hours (GWh), capable of supplying about two million electric vehicles a year with lithium-ion batteries, far exceeding any other European plant.

The problem is that this mega-plant will be a big consumer of energy and water, say eco-activists. They also fear the release of toxic substances into the soil and groundwater.

Last Saturday, several hundred people gathered in Debrecen demanding to stop the works. “People were not properly informed about this project, they were not asked for their opinion,” says Gabor Bogos, a 42-year-old IT engineer. “We need clean water, clean air, not batteries,” said 56-year-old Julia Perge, co-organizer of the event.

Concerns about the impact on the environment were also raised by a drought in the summer of 2022, when a nearby lake dried up.

“It’s just an environmental disaster”

In response, the Budapest government criticized what it called “the spread of false information” and emphasized “very strict environmental regulations”.

Viktor Orbán plans to turn Hungary into the factory of Europe. In total, more than 20 factory projects are under consideration, emblematic of so-called “Orbanomics,” a strategy implemented after Orbán’s return to power in 2010. The goal is for Hungary to become the second largest European battery producer in 2030. for electric cars, after Germany.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó boasts that he has managed to attract foreign investment despite “tremendous competition” thanks to Budapest’s policy of openness to the East and its proximity to Beijing. “This is the industrial sector of the future”, which gives hope in a period of economic difficulties and galloping inflation, believes Peter Sijarto, who this time is in unison with Brussels. The European Commission wants to increase Europe’s share of global production of batteries for electric vehicles to 25% by the end of the decade, from 3% in 2020.

However, the future mega-factory will require workers, according to Debretin locals, who fear they will be usurped by workers from Asia to fill the 9,000 jobs created by the future plant. there is not enough labor force. Hungary is currently experiencing a labor shortage.

“We are promised that future factories will convince young people to stay in a country suffering from a brain drain, but this is not true. It’s just an environmental disaster,” says Dora Györfi, professor of economics at Corwin University in Budapest. (Agerpress) (photo: DreamsTime.com)

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