In the local elections in Hungary, the ruling Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán suffered a significant defeat. In the capital Budapest, opposition candidate Gergely Karácsony defeated the Fidesz-backed candidate, with about 51 to 45 percent.
Also in about ten other major cities in Hungary, Fidesz mayors and councilors were defeated. The various Hungarian opposition parties had put forward a joint candidate in many towns and cities.
The result is a major blow to the nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who since coming to power nine years ago had not suffered a defeat.
"I want to take the relationship between Budapest and the government to a new level. We are not ready for war with the government but are ready for cooperative building," said the 44-year-old center-left new mayor of the capital. "Budapest will become green and free, we are bringing it back to Europe."
"This election proves that opposition cooperation works; the opposition achieved its best result in years with the new strategy," said political analyst Andras Biro-Nagy to news agency Agence France-Presse.
Fidesz still performs well in the smaller villages in the countryside. Orbán’s party still gets more than 50 percent, but that is much less than before. The setback for Fidesz is not only due to better cooperation among the opposition. There was considerable uproar in Hungary over a recent scandal involving a Fidesz mayor.
More than 8 million people were eligible to vote for over 3,000 mayors and more than 17,000 municipal councilors. Turnout was nearly 50%, one of the highest turnouts since 1990.