Page 30 - BNE_magazine_11_2019

30 I Central Europe bne November 2019
Opposition candidate Gergely Karacsony won the Budapest mayoral race comfortably.
Hungary's opposition scores stunning upsets in local elections
a wiretapped tape from a meeting was leaked, in which Karacsony spoke of major discord between parties supporting him.
Fragmented opposition parties joined forces to field joint candidates instead of running separately, which proved to be a successful strategy.
They sealed 14 of the 23 districts in the capital including some upset victories in Fidesz strongholds. In the 2014 local elections, Fidesz won 18 districts in Budapest, the opposition just 5.
Hence, the ruling conservative party has lost its majority in the Budapest Munici- pal Council, which is made up of district mayors.
The elections map shows Fidesz' prevail- ing dominance outside of Budapest.
Fidesz remains the strongest force in Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told supporters at Fidesz’s campaign HQ. The ruling party won comfortably in smaller towns and villages and in 13 of the 23 county seats. The party secured a 50% majority on the party lists in all 19 counties.
Orban said the election campaign had been a tough, big and open political bat- tle as should be the case in a democracy based on a competition between parties.
Independent analysts point out that the campaign has been the nastiest ever.
In addition, in more than 900 munici- palities, including towns with at least 20,000 voters, people had no choice other than to support the incumbent leader fielded by Fidesz.
Fidesz on the defensive after
sex scandal
The sex scandal engulfing the mayor of Gyor, home to Audi's Hungarian subsid- iary with the largest engine factory in the world, was decisive in this particular vote, independent analysts said. Unlike in previous elections, Fidesz was forced to play it defensively in the campaign fin- ish and their communication fell apart thanks to scathing reports in a blog.
An anonymous blogger leaked footage of a sex orgy taped in May 2018 in Croatia
Levente Szilagyi in Budapest
Hungarian opposition parties made eyecatching headway in the local elections on October 13, securing a stunning win in Budapest and other big wins in major cities across the country.
The unexpected victory by the united opposition marks the first electoral blow for Viktor Orban since 2010. Turnout was 48.5%, up from 44.5% in 2014 and above 50% in the capital.
Fidesz has lost Budapest after nine years as incumbent candidate Istvan Tarlos won just 44% of the votes, while Gergely Karacsony, the joint candidate of the left-liberal opposition parties received more than 50% of the ballots.
The polls showed Tarlos leading between 3-10pp two weeks before the ballot, while some pollsters called it a neck and neck race just before the vote.
Tarlos, who was district mayor for 26 years ran for his third term in office as an inde- pendent candidate supported by Fidesz.
"At a national level, the result is nice, but we need to pause to think about
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Budapest," the 71-year-old mayor said, referring to the mixed results, as Fidesz managed to hold on to its vast base out- side the capital.
Opposition parties have had little to celebrate since 2006 when leftist-liberals led by Ferenc Gyurcsany beat Orban’s party in the general election.
In the last nine elections since October 2006, including parliamentary, local and European ones, Fidesz won resounding victories in all of them.
"October 14 marks the start of a new
era for Hungary in its quest to regain its freedom", Karacsony said in his speech. "The victory was not his or the opposition parties’ but that of Budapesters who were fighting to win back the capital," he added.
Karacsony, mayor of Budapest's 14th district, has faced a coordinated smear campaign by government media in the last few months.
His campaign events were regularly hacked by politicians from the Fidesz youth organisation. In the campaign finish