This is a surprise and the first electoral setback for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in almost ten years. Left-wing center-right Gergely Karacsony, a joint candidate of several opposition parties, won the municipal election in Budapest on Sunday (October 13th). The capital of Hungary was held since 2010 by the ultraconservative party in power.
According to the count of 81% of the ballots, Gergely Karacsony, 44, obtained 50.6% of the votes against 44.2% for the outgoing mayor and candidate of the power Istvan Tarlos, 71 years. Polls before the election gave the two candidates elbow-to-elbow with a slight advance from the outgoing mayor.
The conquest of the capital, a metropolis of 1.7 million inhabitants, was the most ambitious goal of opponents of Viktor Orbàn, a sovereignist leader whose party Fidesz has dominated the Hungarian political scene for years.
Opposition Coalition
The new, pro-European, ecologically-sensitive mayor of Budapest hailed a "historic victory" while the prime minister acknowledged the defeat and said he was "ready to cooperate" with the new municipal assembly.
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The opposition is also performing better than expected in the provinces, where it would win in 10 of the 23 major cities of the country when it held only four so far. Fidesz remains largely in the majority in rural and medium-sized municipalities.
"This election proves that opposition cooperation works." The opposition has achieved its best result in years with its new strategy of "common lists," believes Andras Biro-Nagy, analyst Policy Solutions think tank. Uniting, Viktor Orban's opponents wanted to show that the Prime Minister, in power since 2010 and largely re-elected for a third consecutive term in spring 2018, is not unbeatable.
"Budapest will be green and free"
In the course of numerous institutional reforms, Viktor Orban is accused of having undermined the rule of law and the balance of power in Hungary while becoming the model of the nationalist rights in Europe and across the Atlantic with his vehement postures against migrants.
"We are taking Budapest back to Europe, Budapest will be green and free," Gergely Karacsony told his supporters on Sunday evening with bursts of applause.
Mayor of a district of Budapest, Gergely Karacsony was supported by several left parties, liberal and centrist. The extreme right-wing Jobbik, which now presents itself as a conservative anti-Orbán party, did not run a candidate, implicitly rallying the coalition.
In 2018, this former scholar in political science looking like intellectual had been the leader of the left for the legislative elections, obtaining a modest score of 11.9%, far behind Viktor Orbàn.
Sign of the feverishness caused by the election in this country of 9.8 million inhabitants, the campaign took place in a deleterious climate. Just before the day of the vote, Mayor Fidesz of Gyor (west), one of the economic lungs of Hungary, found himself caught in a scandal related to the publication of photos showing him at a time. orgy "on a yacht. A particularly unwelcome affair for the party of power that is defending the traditional family and Christian values.
With AFP