Opposition primary is underway
June 21st, 2019A pro-government commentator accuses all three Budapest mayoral opposition candidates of political inconsistencies and wonders if opinion polls by left-liberal pollsters are unbiased.
Residents of Budapest may vote until Tuesday next week to elect the single left-liberal candidate who will challenge incumbent Mayor István Tarlós in the autumn. The outcome will be considered as binding if at least 50 thousand votes are cast.
In Magyar Hírlap, Ervin Nagy describes all three candidates as politically inconsistent. MSZP-Párbeszéd candidate Gergely Karácsony, he writes, was a founding LMP member who originally equally distanced himself from both the previous and the incumbent government, but eventually sided with the Socialist Party. Former TV host Olga Kálmán, he continues, famously said that she would never run for public office, let alone for Mayor of Budapest. Gábor Kerpel-Fronius, whose candidacy was put forward by Momentum, Nagy writes, called Fidesz voters ‘droids’ a few months ago, while now he is courting those among them who are disillusioned with their party. The pro-government analyst then asks whether left-liberal pollsters intend to unfairly influence the primary, as Idea Institute found that almost half of all respondents favour Karácsony’s candidacy, while Publicus Institute’s favourite is Olga Kálmán. The difference between these two results are far above the normal margin of error, Nagy remarks.