BUDAPEST — Voters in the Hungarian capital usually aren't fans of Viktor Orbán, but for years they haven't been able to get rid of him or his allies.

His opponents hope this year will be different and they can make a dent in the prime minister's support, all thanks to teamwork.

Hungary is preparing for local elections in October, with mayoral and council seats up for grabs. While Orbán's brand of nationalist politics enjoys strong support across the country, that's not as much the case in Budapest, where his Fidesz party won 41.17 percent in May's European Parliament election (and dipped as low as 31.72 percent in one city center district), compared with 52.56 percent nationwide.

However, the anti-Orbán vote has long been split, so many of the capital city's local officials, as well its mayor, are either members of Fidesz or backed by the ruling party.

Now, the opposition is experimenting with a new strategy: a coalition of parties from across the political spectrum backing joint candidates in the local elections to prevent anti-Orbán groups from competing with one another.

"It's the most united I've ever seen the opposition. Budapest is definitely winnable" — Daniel Berg, opposition board member

"I'm very optimistic," said Gergely Karácsony, a liberal who is running to be mayor of Budapest with the support of five opposition parties.

Speaking with POLITICO in his office in the leafy Zugló area of the city, where he currently serves as a district mayor, Karácsony said opposition parties have been working to back single candidates in the capital's 23 districts. "A few years ago, this would have still been unimaginable," he said.

The 44-year-old was selected to be the opposition's joint candidate for mayor of Budapest following a series of public debates and the first-ever primary, where Budapest residents could choose from three opposition candidates.

Three liberal parties, as well as the socialists and greens, are currently backing Karácsony, while the right-leaning Jobbik is not fielding a candidate against him.

Karácsony will be facing 71-year-old Fidesz-backed incumbent István Tarlós.

Meanwhile, in the city's districts, as well as outside of Budapest, joint candidates were chosen after monthslong negotiations among opposition groups.

"You have to bring a lot of different types of political actors on the same platform, and these actors aren't necessarily used to working with each other. They come from different political cultures, there are some ideological differences to bridge over," said Daniel Berg, a 30-year-old member of the board of the liberal party Momentum, which won 17.35 percent of votes in the capital during the European Parliament election and 9.93 percent nationally.

During negotiations on joint candidates, opposition parties looked at polling data and past election results as well as "who has good local candidates, which parties are the most entrenched" in each area, Berg said. "It's the most united I've ever seen the opposition," he said, adding that "Budapest is definitely winnable."

But like most local elections around the Continent, the race will in large part center on questions that impact residents' daily life. In Budapest that means a focus on issues such as rising housing prices, transportation challenges and poor air quality.

Asked what he would tell a Fidesz voter to convince him or her to opt for the opposition in Budapest's mayoral race, Karácsony said he would tell them that "this election is not about Fidesz and not about the opposition," adding that Orbán has taken development funding away from the capital and transferred it to provincial towns.

The prime minister has always had an "anti-Budapest policy," Karácsony said.

In a sign that Orbán might be worried about the upcoming election, in late August the Hungarian government announced that it will distribute utility vouchers worth 9,000 forint (about €27) to each pensioner by the end of September.

But despite Orbán's lack of widespread popularity in Budapest, some within the opposition camp are worried about low turnout, as well as the presence of other candidates not backed by opposition parties, whose participation could impact results in case of tight races. There is also a belief that some voters could opt for Fidesz out of fear that their area will be punished financially by the national government if they elect the opposition.

And there are worries that even if Karácsony wins the mayoral race, his city council could remain dominated by Fidesz, making it highly difficult to push through policies. Some opposition voters also question his record and ability to stand up to special interests and stamp out corruption.

One opposition insider, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the anti-Orbán camp has a chance of winning in four districts of Budapest, while a further nine are "maybes." Outside the capital, the insider said it is "highly possible" to see opposition victories in the towns of Miskolc, Szombathely, Pécs and Szeged, and "maybe" in Dunaújváros and Eger.

"This is not a celebrity post, you cannot live off of bluffs" — István Tarlós, current mayor of Budapest

Budapest's current mayor, Tarlós, who began his career as a liberal but has long been backed by Fidesz, declined to be interviewed for this article and did not respond to written questions about his campaign goals and record.

But in an interview with state-owned media over the summer, Tarlós compared Karácsony's knowledge of Budapest to that of an employee of a huge hypermarket who works at the back of the store, running a section on birdbaths.

"This is not a celebrity post, you cannot live off of bluffs," Tarlós said. "To some extent you have to get along with the government," he added, warning of significant harm for the city if its leadership fails to work with the national government.

Asked what he would tell Orbán if elected, Karácsony said he is not running for mayor in order to take the city into battle.

"Viktor Orbán's favorite political pursuit is war, he's always at war with somebody: with the [European] Union, with migrants, with George Soros, with liberals, with communists, with UFOs ... he loves to go to war. He does not want to with the Budapestians, because there are too many of them, that's what I'll tell him."