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The Fidesz Budapest electoral committee unanimously nominated Alexandra Szentkirályi as the Fidesz-KDNP alliance’s candidate for mayor of Budapest, Fidesz Budapest announced on its social media page.
Zsolt Láng, Fidesz Budapest president, said that in the past four and a half years “Karácsony and Gyurcsány’s people have bankrupted the capital, so we need change in Budapest!” “Under Alexandra Szentkirályi’s leadership, the city can get a new impetus and start developing again,” the post reads.
“I accept this honorable invitation,” announced Alexandra Szentkirályi, government spokesperson, in a post on her Facebook page. In a video uploaded alongside the post, she said that the nation’s capital is in the grip of Ferenc Gyurcsány, who has made Gergely Karácsony mayor.
The nation’s capital deserves a mayor who does not fight the government but cooperates with it,”
she emphasized. In addition, Szentkirályi said: “It is an honor and a challenge to stand for the post of mayor of Budapest. She added that she will put all her knowledge and experience to good use for the benefit of the city. “I believe that Budapest deserves more!,” the politician stressed.
On her social media page, Szentkirályi also wrote that she was honored to have spent more than four years as a spokesperson for the government of Hungary. “This wonderful and very eventful period is now over for me; I will no longer continue my work as government spokesperson,” the politician added.
The former mayor of Budapest also spoke out on the nomination. István Tarlós told Hirado.hu what he thinks about Fidesz’s candidacy of Szentkirályi in the mayoral election: “Alexandra Szentkirályi has the best overview of the whole spectrum of local government, knows the city, has strong lobbying power, communicates well.” He added that “it is important that there is a female candidate, in today’s world it is a positive development if a woman can lead a city of millions, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro have had a female mayor for 20 years…”
Szentkirályi was born in Budapest in 1987. She graduated from the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of Pázmány Péter Catholic University. She started her career in Fidelitas (political youth organization), then between 2010 and 2014, she was a member of the Fidesz-KDNP faction of the Budapest municipality, and in 2014, she became the youngest ever deputy mayor of Budapest, alongside István Tarlós. Until 2019, she was Deputy Mayor of Budapest for Human Affairs, overseeing cultural, educational, social, youth, sports, environmental, tourism, and image issues. She then became government spokesperson, a position she has held since 2020.
Via MTI, Magyar Nemzet, Hirado.hu; Featured image via Facebook/Szentkirályi Alexandra