Re-nomination of Budapest mayor to be supported in 2024

Opposition Momentum will support the re-nomination of Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony for the post in the 2024 municipal elections, the party’s leader said on Thursday.

The mayor is running Budapest against “a massive counteroffensive” by the government which wants “to destroy” the city, Ferenc Gelencsér told an online press conference. “But Budapest is still standing, it is functioning and prospering,” he said. “It does not matter how the state party [Fidesz], or its actual proxy organisation — this time Mi Hazánk — seeks to change the election law. Budapest is a free city and will remain so.”

Gelencsér, who is Momentum’s group leader in the national assembly, said his party was ready for a compromise, adding that it was also ready to back the nomination of candidates on a joint list in constituencies where the opposition stood a good chance to win.