Two days before the municipal elections and just before the Friday afternoon deadline, the official mayoral candidate of Fidesz-KDNP, Alexandra Szentkirályi, announced her withdrawal from the candidacy.
‘For me, the most important thing remains to see Gyurcsány and Karácsony leave the leadership of the city. Therefore, paving the way for change, I am stepping down from the mayoral candidacy and will continue the campaign as the lead candidate of Fidesz for the capital city. At the same time, I ask all my supporters to vote for Dávid Vitézy on the mayoral ballot and for the Fidesz-KDNP list led by me on the party list ballot!’, she stated.
On Friday morning, a survey by Századvég indicated that Vitézy is the most popular candidate, and if he were to run one-on-one against Gergely Karácsony, he would defeat the incumbent mayor.
Since March, Gergely Karácsony had been saying that he believed both Szentkirályi and Dávid Vitézy were Fidesz candidates. (Vitézy is supported by LMP, and Péter Ungár, co-chair of LMP, donated HUF 200 million of his own funds to his campaign.)
Fidesz announced Szentkirályi’s candidacy quite late. According to a survey by liberal-leaning pollster Medián conducted at the end of May Karácsony was leading Szentkirályi by a wide margin.
Previously, Hungarian Conservative reported that according to a poll by the left-leaning Publicus Institute, Karácsony’s lead is steady, around 47 per cent. This survey also speculated that if Szentkirályi or Vitézy were to withdraw from the race and endorse each other, they still would not have the numbers to beat Karácsony. However, the withdrawal of Szentkirályi might be enough to garner sufficient support for a Vitézy victory, giving him the edge in the weekend elections, as the Századvég survey also suggests.
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