Opposition unity in Budapest in grave danger: Orbán’s Fidesz will win back Budapest?

The opposition LMP party “wants to show that there could be an alternative political proposal to lead Budapest . the party seeks a candidate [for Budapest mayor] who is not associated with their political affiliation,” LMP co-chairman Péter Ungár said at his party’s congress on Saturday.

LMP’s candidate would “represent the 60 percent of Budapest residents using public transport” in the long run, and work “to develop rather than shrink services”, Ungár said.

Budapest needs parks and social housing “rather than skyscrapers and luxury homes”, he said, adding that LMP would “not make concessions” on that subject.

Ungár declined to name a candidate saying that LMP was “not in search of a coat to complete a button”, adding that “there is joy in anticipation”.

Slamming Gergely Karácsony, the incumbent, opposition mayor of Budapest, Ungár suggested Karácsony’s priority was “to pose as [PM] Viktor Orban’s victim on Facebook”.

Ungár also criticised the other opposition parties in Budapest for “pretending to support cooperation whereas none of them are really eager that it should happen”.

Ungár insisted that political discourse within the opposition was “about persons rather than content”. He said “every election or referendum is about Viktor Orbán, while the opposition sees Ferenc Gyurcsány as the cause of all their problems or the solution to everything and Karácsony as the only hope”.

Ungár said his party was the only opposition party “that can define itself”. LMP is Hungary’s only green party, for which “the question if Lake Balaton should be surrounded by concrete” is a greater priority than “whether there is a police cordon around the prime minister’s office”.

“LMP is familiar with the dangers of GMO,” he said, adding that his party would “fight against battery plants in Hungary to the last minute.”

Ungár added, however, that “the EU is not the source of all good things and markets are not omnipotent”.

Ungár said LMP was the “only party that has drawn conclusions from the dramatic defeat of the 2022 election” and offered a “completely different alternative to the unnerving spiritual civil war raging in Hungarian politics”.

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