Budapest mayor enters primary to run against Hungary’s Orban

By JUSTIN SPIKE
Associated Press

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — A frontrunner in the race for a joint opposition candidate to fight Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in next year’s national election has opened his campaigning, promising to “liberate” the country from the right-wing populist leader. Budapest’s liberal mayor, Gergely Karacsony, who is one of five contenders to lead a coalition of main opposition parties, spoke Friday to several hundred supporters who gathered despite early autumn drizzle in the capital. The country’s six opposition parties have resolved to put aside ideological differences and coordinate their candidates after more than a decade of bitter losses to Orban’s Fidesz party, which holds a two-thirds majority in parliament.