Opposition LMP has voiced its support for a run for Budapest mayor by Dávid Vitézy, a former state secretary for transport, saying his election would “free Budapest from its intellectual civil war”. Máté Kanász-Nagy, the party’s deputy group leader, told a press conference on Saturday that over the past years, Budapest had become a “political battleground”, adding that the identities of the two mayoral candidates — incumbent mayor Gergely Karácsony and government spokeswoman Alexandra Szentkirályi — “fuel these battles”. He said that by nominating Szentkirályi as its mayoral candidate, ruling Fidesz “has made it clear that it wants Budapest to be the government’s mouthpiece”, insisting that if elected, Szentkirályi “would do what the prime minister tells her”. Kanász-Nagy also said that at his commemoration of the national holiday on Friday, Karácsony “looked like he wants to be the leader of the opposition, a prime ministerial candidate again”. He said the municipal elections were about deciding who should be entrusted with managing Budapest’s affairs and making the city better. “LMP wants to free Budapest from this intellectual civil war,” Kanász-Nagy said, adding they believed the solution was electing “a third way candidate” in the form of Dávid Vitézy.