Gergely Karácsony

Gergely Szilveszter Karácsony (born 11 June 1975) is a Hungarian political scientist, politician, member of the National Assembly (MP) from 2010 to 2014 and current Mayor of Budapest. He was elected Mayor of Zugló in 2014. His research areas are electoral systems and electoral behaviors.

Gergely Karácsony
Mayor of Budapest
Assumed office
13 October 2019
Preceded byIstván Tarlós
Mayor of Zugló
District XIV, Budapest
In office
12 October 2014 – 13 October 2019
Preceded byFerenc Papcsák
Succeeded byCsaba Horváth
Member of the National Assembly
In office
14 May 2010 – 5 May 2014
Personal details
Born (1975-06-11) 11 June 1975
Fehérgyarmat, Hungary
Political partyLMP (2009–2013)
PM (2013– )
ChildrenMihály[1]
Professionpolitical scientist, politician
The native form of this personal name is Karácsony Gergely. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Career

Karácsony worked for the Medián market and public opinion research company as a research manager. He became Director of Research in 2007. In addition he has been a lecturer at the Corvinus University of Budapest since 2004. He became a member of the newly formed Politics Can Be Different (LMP) party in 2009. During the 2010 parliamentary election he served as campaign manager of the party. He became a Member of Parliament from the Budapest regional list (3rd place). In May 2010 he was elected deputy leader of the LMP parliamentary fraction.[2] As a result he left the Medián firm.

He was the party's candidate at the Budapest District II by-election in November 2011. He came third with 6.45 percent after Zsolt Láng (Fidesz) and Katalin Lévai (MSZP).[3] Both MSZP and LMP agreed that the candidate who received fewer votes would withdraw in favour of the stronger one, however Karácsony also participated in the run-off.[4]

In January 2013, the LMP's congress rejected electoral cooperation with other opposition forces, including Together 2014.[5] As a result members of LMP's "Dialogue for Hungary" platform, including Karácsony, announced their decision to leave the opposition party and form a new organisation. Benedek Jávor, leader of the "Dialogue for Hungary" platform, said the eight MPs leaving LMP would keep their parliamentary mandates. The leaving MPs established Dialogue for Hungary as a full-fledged party.[6]

In June 2014, Karácsony was elected co-chair of Dialogue for Hungary alongside Tímea Szabó, when his predecessor Jávor became a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in the 2014 European Parliament election.[7] Karácsony won the mayoral election in Zugló during the 2014 local elections as a joint candidate of the Hungarian Socialist Party, Democratic Coalition, and the Together 2014–Dialogue for Hungary alliance. According to the new rules, he also became a member of the General Assembly of Budapest.

In April 2017, Karácsony was re-elected co-leader of the Dialogue for Hungary and was also appointed as his party's candidate for the position of prime minister in the 2018 parliamentary election.[8] The Hungarian Socialist Party also elected Karácsony as their candidate for the position of prime minister in December 2017. The two parties also decided to jointly contest the 2018 national election.[9] Consequently, the Together has terminated their cooperation agreement with the Dialogue for Hungary.[10] Under the leadership of Karácsony, the MSZP–PM joint list received 11.91% and came only third after Fidesz and Jobbik.[11]

In June 2019, in the opposition's first primary election, he was elected[12] as the opposition's (MSZP-P-DK-Momentum-LMP-MLP[13][14][15][16] While Jobbik did not endorse Karácsony outright, the party opted not to run a candidate against him.[17] This left Karácsony as the sole opposition candidate for the position of Lord Mayor of Budapest in the 2019 local elections, against incumbent Lord Mayor István Tarlós, who was supported by the ruling coalition, Fidesz–KDNP. He then went on to win the election on 13 October 2019 with 50.86% of the votes being cast in his favor with Tarlós receiving 44.10%.[18]

References
  1. "Kvíz: melyik politikusé lehet ez a gyerek?" [Quiz: which politician's can this child be?] (in Hungarian). 24.hu. 20 February 2014.
  2. "Schiffer vezeti az LMP képviselőcsoportját" [Schiffer leads the Politics Can Be Different (LMP) political group]. Index.hu (in Hungarian). 10 May 2010. Retrieved 10 May 2010.
  3. "Fidesz candidate wins Budapest by-election in landslide". Politics.hu. 28 November 2011. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  4. "Fidesz candidate cruises to victory in closely-watched Budapest by-election". Politics.hu. 15 November 2011. Archived from the original on 10 June 2017. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  5. "LMP rejects proposals for new strategy at party congress". 27 January 2013. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  6. "LMP rebels to establish Dialogue for Hungary as a full-fledged party". 4 February 2013. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  7. "Karácsony: Új társelnök az Együtt-PM-ben" [Karácsony: New co-chair of the Together-Dialogue for Hungary alliance]. HVG (in Hungarian). Budapest. 15 June 2014. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  8. "Karácsony Gergely a PM miniszterelnök-jelöltje" [Gergely Karácsony the Dialogue for Hungary candidate for prime minister]. 24.hu (in Hungarian). 30 April 2017. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  9. "Hivatalos: Karácsony Gergely az MSZP miniszterelnök-jelöltje". Index.hu (in Hungarian). 12 December 2017. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  10. "Szakított Karácsony Gergellyel az Együtt". 8 December 2017. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  11. Than, Krisztina; Szakacs, Gergely (9 April 2018). "Hungary's Strongman Viktor Orban Wins Third Term in Power". Reuters. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  12. Marianna, Biró (26 June 2019). "Karácsony nyerte az előválasztást". index.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  13. Bence, Horváth (5 July 2019). "Az összes budapesti kerületben egyetlen jelöltet indít az ellenzék". 444. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  14. ATV. "Itt a budapesti ellenzéki polgármesterjelöltek listája, lesz kerületi előválasztás". ATV.hu. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  15. "Az LMP is beállt a fővárosban az ellenzéki összefogás mögé". 24.hu (in Hungarian). 15 June 2019. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  16. akiraly (22 August 2019). "Visszalép a Liberálisok főpolgármester-jelöltje". 444. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  17. "Karácsony nem a Jobbik jelöltje, de nem is támogatnak ellene mást « Mérce". Mérce (in Hungarian). 30 June 2019. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  18. "Helyi önkormányzati választások 2019 – Főpolgármester választás" [Local Government Elections 2019 – Mayor's Election] (in Hungarian). Nemzeti Választási Iroda (National Election Office). Archived from the original on 13 October 2019.
Political offices
Preceded by
Ferenc Papcsák		 Mayor of Zugló
2014–2019		 Succeeded by
Csaba Horváth
Preceded by
István Tarlós		 Mayor of Budapest
2019–present		 Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by
Tímea Szabó
Benedek Jávor		 Co-President of Dialogue for Hungary
alongside Tímea Szabó
2014–present		 Incumbent
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.