István Tarlós would win in Budapest if the elections were held this Sunday. The current lord mayor can count on 51, Gergely Karácsony on 43 and Róbert Puzsér on 6 percent of support from active voters.
62 percent of Budapest residents consider István Tarlós to be best capable of securing the most financial resources for the city in the future, reveals a representative public opinion poll conducted by Nézőpont Intézet on behalf of Magyar Nemzet newspaper.
The poll conducted at the end of August in Budapest by Nézőpont Intézet shows that István Tarlós would be the winner of the lord mayoral elections if they were held this Sunday. The current lord mayor (51 percent) is leading ahead of Gergely Karácsony (43 percent) among active voters. He has more supporters than all the other candidates together. Róbert Puzsér’s popularity is at 6 percent, and with a strong campaign, the independent candidate may even be able to raise more support.
An overwhelming majority of respondents (62 percent) consider István Tarlós to be best capable of getting the most financial resources for the capital, which could explain his massive popularity. The same ratio is rather low in the case of Gergely Karácsony: Only 9 percent of respondents consider the Zugló mayor capable of acquiring appropriate resources for Budapest. This is hardly more than those who picked Róbert Puzsér (1 percent). It is additional bad news for Karácsony that most of the opposition (56 percent) also agree that István Tarlós would be able to secure the most financial resources. Even of anti-government voters only 28 percent believe that the Zuglo mayor would be capable of securing the most resources for the capital.
This is not the only thing, however, limiting the chances of Gergely Karácsony, who positions himself in opposition of the government. According to the majority of Budapest residents (58 percent) the best attitude for a lord mayor is that of seeking cooperation with national leadership. Only 30 percent think that being political at the expense of cooperation with the government is a good decision. István Tarlós’ position is strengthened by the fact that city leadership based on cooperation is the preferred option for 56 percent of MSZP, 33 percent of Momentum Movement, 32 percent of DK and 25 percent of Jobbik supporters. This also shows that even a portion of opposition sympathisers are willing to cross-vote for the current lord mayor.
Methodology
The public opinion poll was conducted by Nézőpont Intézet between 23-27 August, 2019 in Budapest involving phone interviews with 500 respondents. The sample is representative of the capital’s population of 18 yrs and over by gender, age and educational level. In case of a sample size of 500 the maximum margin of error is 4.5 percent.