Gergely Szilveszter Karácsony ([ˈkɒraːt͡ʃoɲ ˌɡɛrɡɛj ˌsilvɛstɛr]; born 11 June 1975) is a Hungarian politician, sociologist, political scientist, activist and current Mayor of Budapest.

[5] Both MSZP and LMP agreed that the candidate who received fewer votes would withdraw in favour of the stronger one, however Karácsony also participated in the run-off.

[7] As a result members of LMP's "Dialogue for Hungary" platform, including Karácsony, announced their decision to leave the opposition party and form a new organisation.

In April 2017, Karácsony was re-elected co-leader of the Dialogue for Hungary and was also appointed as his party's candidate for the position of prime minister in the 2018 parliamentary election.

[20] On Karácsony's initiative,[21] the mayors of the capitals of all four Visegrád Group countries signed the Pact of Free Cities in Budapest in December 2019.

The pact promotes "common values of freedom, human dignity, democracy, equality, rule of law, social justice, tolerance and cultural diversity".

[30] Karácsony emphasized that, in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic and the global energy crisis, the Fidesz government took a lot of powers and financial resources away from Budapest in the 2019–2024 term purely for political interests, which made the city budget unstable, therefore, the implementation of many projects was delayed or became impossible.

During his re-launch campaign, Karácsony argued that the city's future is decided by whether they can provide affordable housing in the short and long term.

Karácsony argued that he demonstrated his cooperation ability with the government with the fact that a common tariff system was established with the participation of Hungarian State Railways (MÁV), Volánbusz and Budapesti Közlekedési Zrt..

The reconstruction of the Metro Line M3 was finished under his term, but the lack of accessibility and air-conditioning remained an unfulfilled campaign promise.

Instead of a country decorated around today's privileged people, we are creating a homeland that offers everyone a chance, a future and a happy life.

[34]He also stressed that he wanted a country where no one considers the other a traitor, where there is no need to choose between homeland and progress, nation and Europe, Budapest and the countryside.

[36] Following a week-long negotiation and political tactics, beside the result of opinion polls, Karácsony dropped out and endorsed Péter Márki-Zay, who came in third place and eventually won the second round against Klára Dobrev and became the nominee of the opposition for the position of prime minister in the 2022 parliamentary election.