Meet the man who could oust Viktor Orban, Hungary’s strongman

GERGELY KARACSONY, the mayor of Budapest, and Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, could not be less alike. Mr Karacsony presides over the cosmopolitan capital; Mr Orban counts on the rural hinterland as his base. Mr Orban has near-total control over Fidesz, the party that has had near-total control of Hungary since 2010; Mr Karacsony owes his job to an ungainly alliance of six parties. The football-mad Mr Orban built a 3,800-seat stadium in his home village (population: 1,700); Mr Karacsony, a former academic, campaigned against an expensive athletics stadium in his city (population: 1,000 times larger). For anyone still struggling to tell the difference, Mr Karacsony helpfully points out that: “He is short and fat, and I am tall and slim.”Like the differences between Mr Karacsony and Mr Orban, Hungarian politics is now refreshingly clear-cut. It is Mr Orban’s Fidesz party versus everyone else. After losing badly in all three general elections since 2010, Mr Karacsony’s party and the other main opposition groups have teamed up to bring down Mr Orban in next year’s vote. Individually, these parties were happy to poll in double digits. Together the alliance, which ranges from the formerly far-right Jobbik to socialists via centrist liberals, is polling level with Fidesz, in the high 40s. For the first time in more than a decade, someone has a chance of booting Mr Orban out.