Márki Zay and Karácsony break up
October 8th, 2021As the two mayors decide to run separately in the opposition primary run-off, a liberal commentator cautiously suggests that DK candidate Klára Dobrev might be the most promising opposition candidate for Prime Minister.
After coming in second and third in the first round of the primary, the left-liberal Mayor of Budapest and the conservative Christian Mayor of Hódmezővásárhely teamed up to challenge DK candidate Klára Dobrev, the winner of the first round. When that proposal was rejected by the organising committee, they failed to agree on who should withdraw to help the other become PM Orbán’s challenger next year. (See also, BudaPost, October 7).
In Népszava, Gábor Horn, a former prominent liberal MP and now chairman of the Republikon think tank, asks voters in the run-off of the opposition primary to consider, beyond their personal preferences, which of the three candidates can attract more undecided voters in next year’s general election. Karácsony, he believes, has done a great disservice to himself by taking his victory in the primary for granted, and has no sufficient network of activists to support him. He finds Márki-Zay’s performance impressive, but remarks that his activist network is even weaker than Karácsony’s. As for Dobrev, Horn feels that the DK candidate has shown herself a resolute politician. He suggests that Ms Dobrev’s ‘sanguine statements’, including plans to ‘bypass the limits of the rule of law’ (a hint at her plan to scrap the Fundamental Law without the required two-thirds majority in parliament) might attract even right-wing voters.