Steven N.
Viktor Orbán is the most popular politician among the general population, with his main challenger in the April 3 elections, United for Hungary party list leader Péter Márki-Zay, lagging far behind him, reports Telex on a new poll by Závecz Research. (UPDATE: the poll was conducted in early February, and so before the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine.)
Respondents were asked to rate Hungary’s leading politicians on a scale of one to five. At the top of the list was Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, netting a “popularity index” score of 43. He was followed by fellow Fidesz politicians Péter Szijjártó (39) and Katalin Novák (38).
After these three, the other politicians making up the rest of the top ten were ranked accordingly: Péter Jakab (37), Klára Dobrev (35), András Fekete-Győr (34), Gergely Karácsony (33), Judit Varga (33), and Péter Márki-Zay (32). At the bottom of the list was László Toroczkai (26).
Tibor Závecz told Telex that a difference of 2-3 points in the poll was negligible, but that differences of at least 4-5 points were worth paying attention to.
The poll also yielded a curious result: Viktor Orbán (37) is even ahead of Péter Márki-Zay (34) in Budapest, but their popularity is neck-and-neck in Hungary’s other cities. This may be a warning sign for United for Hungary, as the opposition party coalition is hoping to get a higher proportion of votes in the capital to compensate for expected losses in rural areas.
The poll confirmed that Viktor Orbán is far more popular in small towns than Márki-Zay. Respondents in those areas gave the Fidesz president a popularity index score of 52, compared to 21 for his challenger. [HVG]
Hopefully, the next polls will show a shift albeit even some of my friends -with moderate views- have distain for MZP.
Your posts consistently reflect objective facts and/or analysis even when I would prefer that the reality on the ground in Hungary was different. Better to be armed with objective analysis and facts. Orban et al may have shifted fast enough from outright endorsement of Putin to a more mixed bag to survive April elections, especially given regime control of newspapers and television.
Those of us in opposition to the current Hungarian regime may need to be prepared for defeat in April. I hope I am mistaken. The next polls will be critical i.e. if Orban remains this popular, the opposition may not succeed in April elections.
Márki-Zay said yesterday that “one of the opposition parties, and probably Telex,” was behind this poll. Not really sure what he meant by that, or even if it meant he was questioning its validity…