Nezopont gauges higher voter satifaction with former Budapest mayor than successor

Forty-six percent of an 800-strong sample chose Tarlos in their answer to the question “who has been the best leader of Budapest so far”, while only 26 selected Karacsony.

Authors of the Nezopont report noted that Karacsony was a popular politician “whose image is not damaged by current issues” but warned that “popularity may not lead to satisfaction and automatic re-election”. Forty percent of respondents said they would like to see Karacsony reelected, while an equal 40 percent said they would not. Forty-eight percent said they liked Karacsony and 42 percent said they did not – the same ratio as reflected by the results of last year’s mayoral election.

Karacsony’s unchanged popularity is “interesting” in view of the city management’s “passing few spectacular or important decisions”, the pollster said.