Mikepércs

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Place in Hajdú-Bihar, Hungary

Coat of arms

Country

HungaryCountyHajdú-BiharGovernment

• MayorTimár Zoltán (Fidesz / KDNP)Area

• Total36.93 km² (14.26 sq mi)Population

(2015)

• Total3,520^[1] • Density121.3/km² (314/sq mi)Time zoneUTC+1 (CET) • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)Postal code

4271

Area code52

Location of Hajdú-Bihar county in Hungary

Mikepércs is a village in Hajdú-Bihar county, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary.

Geography

It covers an area of 36.93 km² (14 sq mi) and has a population of 4,480 people (2015).^[1]

Economy

CATL battery factory

As part of Hungarian president Viktor Orbán's 2010 "Eastern Opening" policy of economic realignment towards China and Russia, on 12 August 2022, Chinese battery manufacturer CATL announced it would construct a USD$7.8 billion, 100 GWh battery factory on 221 hectares of land located in the Southern Economic Zone in Debrecen;^[2] the project was hailed by Hungary's governing Fidesz party as the biggest foreign investment in the nation's history, and the factory would be the largest of its kind in Europe.^[3]

However, residents began to protest as construction began, sparked in late 2022 by a street protest organised by a group of local women. At two public hearings regarding the project, townspeople started fights and shouted at government officials, calling them traitors — a reporter for local newspaper Debreciner described "hundreds of people yelling and fighting".^[3] Mikepércs' mayor Timár Zoltán announced he was also opposed to the project, despite being a member of Fidesz himself; similarly, György Matolcsy, the governor of the Hungarian National Bank, also came out against the factory.^[4]

Residents are concerned about pollution, property values, and unemployment. Zoltán told the New York Times that CATL had told him it was "too busy" to send a representative to a town-hall meeting.^[3] In response, Fidesz has blamed George Soros for fomenting protests; Debrecen mayor László Papp blamed "fake information" for the locals' opposition.^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b Gazetteer of Hungary, 1 January 2015. Hungarian Central Statistical Office. 3 September 2015
^ "CATL announces its second European battery plant in Hungary". CATL. 12 August 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Higgins, Andrew (15 March 2023). "A Hungarian Town Seethes Over a Giant Chinese Battery Plant". The New York Times.
^ Simon, Zoltan (20 January 2023). "Chinese Battery Plant Investment Faces Local Backlash in Hungary". Bloomberg.