European trends suggest that it's the nine years of right-wing leadership that has been extraordinary, not the capital's fall back to left-liberal rule.
Out of the 28 EU capitals, it's only Athens, Madrid and Sofia that have right-wing, conservative leaderships, news portal Origo.hu reports.
18 EU capitals, including metropolises like London, Paris and Berlin, are headed by liberals, social democrats or greens while out of the cities bigger than Budapest, it's only Madrid that has a conservative mayor.
In Paris, on the other hand, in next year's local elections where French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to support Benjamin Griveaux against incumbent Anne Hidalgo, citizens will only be able to choose from two left-wing candidates.
The bigger the city, the more liberal it gets, Origo argues. "The bigger the town, the more mixed its social composition - hence different minorities occur in larger proportions," Levente Boros said. "With regards to capitals," Boros adds, "diplomatic corps and leaders of multinational companies should also be taken into account."
After nine years of right-wing leadership under Mayor István Tarlós, Budapest's fall back to left-liberal rule is, in fact, simply according to European trends.