It looks like Budapest „will remain a republic and won’t become a publicly traded company”, Gergely Karácsony, the city’s mayor, said early on Monday. „There’s still a few percent’s worth of uncertainty, but — though the result is close — it looks like Budapest will remain a republic and won’t become a publicly traded company,” Karácsony, the joint candidate of the Dialogue-Greens, Democratic Coalition and Socialist parties, said at City Hall Park. He thanked the Budapest residents who voted in the election and those who supported him in fighting the battle he said he was fighting for the city. Karácsony said he knew there would still be „a bit of see-sawing” before the outcome was made final, but he believed that Budapest would remain a „diverse and free city exercising solidarity”.