Szentkiralyi withdraws candidacy for Budapest mayor

She asked her supporters to vote for Vitezy as Budapest mayor and for the Fidesz-Christian Democrats list.

Vitezy, who has been put forward by green opposition party LMP and a local association, said “the first win is there the second will come on Sunday”.

He said on Facebook that when he embarked on his campaign he knew he would have to defeat the government policy associated with transport minister Janos Lazar, “which is stymieing all key developments”, as well as the “national political ambitions” of Gergely Karacsony, the incumbent, “who complains and procrastinates while doing nothing”.

Vitezy said that as mayor he would not form a coalition with either Fidesz or the leftist Democratic Coalition (DK). Budapest and the capital’s companies would be “run by professionals rather than failed party cliques”.

“Gyurcsany’s people are off, but Orban’s people can’t take their place either,” he said, referring to the former Socialist prime minister who leads the Democratic Coalition and the current premier, respectively.

Reacting, Karacsony said on Facebook: “So the charade is over.”

He insisted that Szentkiraly’s withdrawal was part of a “dark and cynical political deal” and that Vitezy was “Fidesz’s candidate”.

He called the “deal” a “betrayal” of voters. “Fidesz has betrayed its voters just as it has betrayed Budapest over the last five years,” he added.

Peter Ungar, LMP’s co-leader, said: “I will be proud for the rest of my life that we nominated David Vitezy for mayor. This shows that LMP is capable of focusing on whether a candidate is fit for a certain task instead of which cannon shot of the intellectual civil war lands where.”

In a post on Facebook, Ungar called on voters not to “fall for the . desperate noise of the outcry in favour of defending the status quo . which everyone in Budapest and the country loses out on”.

The Momentum Movement’s Tamas Soproni, the mayor of Budapest’s 6th district, said on Facebook that those who “want the policies of David Vitezy’s platform represented in the city assembly but don’t want to vote for Fidesz’s candidate” and those who wanted to see Karacsony’s “progressive programme” represented should vote for the Momentum Movement’s Budapest list.

Soproni urged voters to cast their ballot for the incumbent mayor, saying that with Szentkiralyi’s withdrawal from the race it was “beyond doubt” that “a vote for Vitezy and his list is a vote for Fidesz”.

Koloman Brenner, deputy parliamentary group leader of the Jobbik Party, said on Facebook that “Fidesz has once again hid behind a woman’s skirt”.

Brenner urged voters to back Vitezy in the mayoral race, saying that his professional dedication could be a guarantee that Budapest’s leadership would offer meaningful solutions to people’s problems instead of answers “dictated” by Fidesz or DK.