Steven N.László Vasvári won a seat in the Újpest Municipality by-elections on Sunday as the joint candidate for MSZP, Dialogue, LMP, Momentum, Jobbik, and DK, the parties that also ran joint candidates in April’s parliamentary elections. Vasvári’s 47.7% of the vote beat the pro-government candidate, Fruzsina Drabant, who only managed to get 40.7%.
However, Vasvári was the lone opposition winner in the capital on Sunday, as pro-government candidates won in two other Budapest races where special municipal elections were also held. The Fidesz-KDNP nominee won elections for local governments seats in Józsefváros and in the neighboring Erzsébetváros, both replacing DK members in their respective districts.
Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony admitted his disappointment with the result on social media:
Can’t deny it, it was a disappointing result.
The Mayor argued that the opposition’s current attitude of “if we can’t defeat Fidesz, we’ll defeat each other” isn’t leading anywhere.
He also wrote that “voters have sent a message: wake up!” [HVG]
There is no way around it – Hungarian civil society is knee deep in democratic deficeit.