Opposition mayoral candidates to step down if they lose preselection

Gergely Karácsony, the Budapest mayoral candidate representing four opposition parties, and Róbert Puzsér, the green opposition LMP party’s candidate, have vowed to step aside in favour of the other in a primary to be held in the summer ahead of the autumn local elections.

Karácsony, the co-leader of the Párbeszéd party, was voted by Democratic Coalition (DK), Párbeszéd, Socialist and Solidarity Movement supporters as their candidate in a primary held in February.

As we wrote before, Párbeszéd’s Gergely Karácsony won the preselection vote to determine the left-wing opposition’s candidate for mayor of Budapest, defeating the Socialist Party’s Csaba Horváth. A total of 34,133 valid votes were cast over the course of the week-long ballot.

At a discussion organised by news site Válasz Online, Puzsér pledged to drop out of the race if he lost the preselection vote, but said that he would only support Karácsony if he implemented his “Walking Budapest” programme. Karácsony agreed to support Puzsér should the LMP candidate win, and said that their programmes “were not that different”.

Source: MTI