A weather forecaster made the wrong broadcast ahead of a national holiday and furious bosses fired him for it.
Head of Hungary’s National Meteorological Service (NMS) Kornelia Radics and her deputy Gyula Horvath warned their country of oncoming storms and gusts of wind in the capital Budapest ahead of a massive national holiday.
To cap off the day, celebrating "Hungary's millennial state" the city was going to host one of Europe’s biggest firework displays along the banks of the Danube.
Their doom and gloom weather forecast caused the firework display to be cancelled.
However, the storm missed Budapest meaning the display could’ve gone off without a hiccup after all.
In the furious aftermath both the head Kornelia and Gyula were relieved from their duties earlier this week.
Whilst Technology minister Lazlo Palkovics, who oversees the NMS, did not give a reason it has been widely reported that it was because of their mistake over the national holiday.
The NMS apologised on Sunday, citing “a factor of uncertainty inherent in the profession”.
But the day has long proved contentious in some quarters politically and under the rule of want-to-be strongman Viktor Orban - the national holiday and subsequent forecast has come under greater fire.
The political opposition demanded the display be cancelled and branded it a “useless waste of money” at a time when the country’s economy was struggling and neighbouring Ukraine was at war.
A petition calling for its cancellation gained nearly 200,000 signatures.
But over the weekend, pro-government media slammed NMS with Origo accusing the agency of spreading “misleading information about the extent of the bad weather, which misled the operation team responsible for security”.
In a reaction broadcast Hungarian activist and politician Andras Fekete-Gyor said: “They couldn’t produce the desired weather, they were fired.
"No, it’s not a dictatorship in Central Asia, it’s the Hungary of [ruling party] Fidesz."
His comments echoed much of the criticism aimed at Orban and the display has been rescheduled for later this week.
