The district leaders elected in the capital would have had the opportunity to demonstrate the governing ability of the left. However, two and a half years after their election, most Budapest mayors regularly run into walls when they want to assert their will in the left-wing majority representative bodies.

A few days ago, we wrote that the left-wing mayors elected in the 2019 municipal elections in cities with county status failed to preserve left-wing unity, with a few exceptions, and several of them are now in the minority in local bodies.

The task of the city leaders elected three years ago should have been to demonstrate that the left is capable of governing, and many of them are now in the minority in their own settlements.

In Budapest, two and a half years ago, the mayoral candidates supported by the left won in fourteen out of 23 districts.

Four of them are no longer able to assert their will in the leftist-majority representative body they control.

In the 1st district, Márta V. Naszályi (Párbeszéd) had problems with her own representatives. As Magyar Nemzet first wrote, the left-liberal mayor would have supported the II. private Átrium theater in the district, but he could not get a majority for this idea in the representative body. It later turned out that the Átrium case was only the beginning, at the last board meeting before the summer break, the board of representatives significantly curtailed the mayor's powers. For example, Márta V. Naszályi's support framework was lowered, from ten million forints to five million forints.

The VII. the mayor of the district, Péter Niedermüller, also clashed with his own former allies. In the matter of real estate development in the district, the local Momentum agrees with the district's Fidesz, so the Gyurcsányist mayor cannot get the construction approved. Partly because of this, in the by-election held two weeks ago, Momentum did not even support DK's Jenei Kevin, who easily lost to the Fidesz-KDNP candidate, András Ripka.

The new representative indicated that he does not support the plans of the Niedermüllers, which will therefore not have a majority in the Erzsébetváros representative body.

The air is clearly running out András Pikó VIII. also around the district mayor. There was also a by-election in Józsefváros on June 26, where the Fidesz-KDNP candidate won by two-thirds. Shortly before the interval, five left-wing representatives informed Piko that they were founding a separate faction. After the interim victory of Fidesz, the local organization of the governing parties has the most representatives (seven) in the Józsefváros representative body. The left-wing mayor's own faction of six people, while the five-member faction of the MSZP supports the mayor for the time being.

The neighboring IX. In the district, the left-wing mayor Krisztina Baranyi is not in a better position.

Most recently, when the head of the local media company was replaced, the mayor's opinion was completely ignored. At the suggestion of the local DK and MSZP, the left-wing majority finally appointed Olga Kálmán's husband to lead the municipal company, despite Krisztina Baranyi's opposition.

Krisztián Talabér, Nézöpont analyst, told Mandiner,

based on these, it can be said with certainty that Fidesz has no chance in Budapest in 2024 either. According to him, some of the winners of the local elections in 2019 are feeling uncertain about their renewal in 2024.

Source: mandiner.hu

Featured image: MTI/Szilárd Koszticsák