• Home
• Channel: Current Affairs
• Budapest Mayor Withdraws From Opposition Prime Ministerial Primary, Backs Márki-Zay

Budapest Mayor Withdraws From Opposition Prime Ministerial Primary, Backs Márki-Zay

• 11 Oct 2021 6:33 AM
• Hungary Matters

Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony on Friday announced that he is withdrawing from the opposition’s prime ministerial primary election and will back Péter Márki-Zay, leader of the Everyone’s Hungary Movement (MMM), in the second round of the nomination contest.

At a news conference in front of Parliament, Karácsony, who ran as the joint candidate of his Párbeszéd party, the Socialists and green LMP, asked his supporters to vote for Márki-Zay in the second round of the primary.

Karácsony finished runner-up in the first round behind the Democratic Coalition’s Klára Dobrev and ahead of third-placed Márki-Zay.

Despite garnering 170,000 votes in the first round, Karácsony said he was now calling for support of a “centre-right politician with whom I have disputes on issues such as taxation”.

He praised Márki-Zay as a “fair and honest man who is ready to serve, and who loves his country more than he loves power”.

“If I hadn’t taken this step, [Prime Minister] Viktor Orbán would stay and our political differences would not matter,” he said.

“Those who do not make sacrifices at times like these are not patriots,” he said.

Márki-Zay said he would join the Budapest mayor’s 99 Movement “as a show of respect” for Karácsony, who “had shown that he puts the country above all else”.

Márki-Zay, who is serving as mayor of the southern city of Hódmezővásárhely, said Dobrev’s support was also needed for a change of government at next spring’s election.

Should Dobrev win the nomination, however, she couldn’t garner “the three million votes needed to topple Orbán”, he said.

“Unfortunately, I am your only hope today,” Márki-Zay summed up his message to voters.

Márki-Zay expressed hope that „Orbán would not mobilise masses for supporting Dobrev” in the primary.

"Those who cast their vote for Dobrev will actually vote for Orbán,” he said.


MTI Photo: Zoltán Balogh

• How does this content make you feel?
• I love it
• I like it
• I dislike it

• Budapest Mayor Opposition Prime Ministerial Primary Márki-Zay

XpatLoop Media Partner

Hungary Matters

Launched in January 2014, this newsletter published on week days covers 'everything you need to know about what’s going on in Hungary and beyond', according to its publisher the state media agency MTI.

Explore More Reports

Hungarian Opinion on Péter Magyar, Ex-Husband of Former Justice Minister

• 11 Apr 2024 2:55 PM

Weekly newspapers were already on the stands when tens of thousands of people attended the 15 March rally where Péter Magyar, the divorced husband of former justice minister Judit Varga announced his plan to set up a new centrist party. This week, most commentators express scepticism about his initiative.



Everyone Must Act for Change in Hungary, Says Péter Magyar at Mass Demo He Called in Budapest

• 8 Apr 2024 7:13 AM

Everyone must act for change, Péter Magyar said at a demonstration he called in Budapest on Saturday. “We are the nuclear bomb, the Hungarian people,” Magyar said, adding that the solution could not just be expected from him.



Shocker: Former Hungarian Justice Minister Accuses Ex-Husband Of 'Blackmail, Terrorising Her' After He Leaks Secret Recording

• 30 Mar 2024 5:53 AM

“Péter Magyar has blackmailed and terrorised me,” Judit Varga, the former justice minister, said on Facebook, referring to her ex-husband who on Tuesday published a recording of a conversation between them which he made secretly in their family home.



Opposition Parties Received Illegal Campaign Financing, Hungarian Audit Office Finds

• 21 Feb 2024 6:54 AM

The State Audit Office (ÁSZ) has established that parties in the opposition alliance before the 2020 parliamentary elections were involved in illegal campaign financing, ÁSZ head László Windisch said.