Opposition DK's Kalman states full support for Karacsony

Olga Kalman, the Democratic Coalition's (DK) Budapest mayoral candidate defeated by Gergely Karacsony in the preselection process, said on Thursday she now fully backed her former rival. Karacsony of the Socialist-Parbeszed alliance won the preselection process held by several opposition parties to field a candidate against incumbent mayor Istvan Tarlos in the autumn local elections. "There is no question that from now on the opposition's candidate for Budapest mayor is called Gergely Karacsony, and there is no question that I'll help him as best as I can." Karacsony won the preselection with 33,355 votes ahead of Kalman with 25,093 votes. At a separate presser, Karacsony said that the Socialists, Parbeszed, the leftist Democratic Opposition (DK) and Momentum parties will set up a "political body" and run a joint campaign staff. During the campaign, they will draw on the resources of all the parties and build on the work of activists, he said.