Steven N.In just the past few months, there has been a significant increase in Hungarians who reject the European Union’s sanctions on Russia for attacking and invading Ukraine, reports 444.
Endre Hann, head of polling institute Medián, shared data on the subject while presenting a study on Ukrainian refugees. His research shows that in May, three months after the start of the war, 41% of Hungarians said that they did not support the EU-devised sanctions, but that this number had grown to 52% by October.
In other words, even before the government launched its recent anti-sanctions poster campaign, it appears that the majority of the country has already rejected the sanctions policy. Opposition to sanctions is notably high (81%) among supporters of ruling party Fidesz.
On both occasions, respondents who supported the sanctions were then asked how they would feel if the policy caused a slowdown in the Hungarian economy and a higher cost of living. In October, 31% of this group professed support for the Russian sanctions, a four percentage point decline from 35% back in May.
Apart from party affiliation, educational attainment was a decisive factor in determining responses. Half of all college graduates declared support for the sanctions even if it meant making sacrifices, while this proportion was 32% for those with high school degrees, 23% for vocational degree-holders, and 15% for those with only eight years of schooling.
A similar result was also seen with regards to age: nearly 50% of the youngest respondents agreed with the sanctions, while only a quarter of the oldest respondents felt the same way. [444]
I doubt George Orwell would be surprised by results of poll given regime control of most television programming, let alone almost every newspaper. And-of course- most Hungarians get their “news” from either direct regime controlled media or regime stooge control of the media in question.
Nevertheless, it is tragic that a country subject to brutal Soviet suppression of the 1956 revolution is unable and/or unwilling to make sacrifices for the sake of not only Ukraine, but the rest of Europe.
Hopefully, the Hungarian exception will not spread to other nations; this is- after all- exactly what Putin is hoping for. One can be certain that Orbán’s regime is sharing the results of the poll with Moscow.
Since the April elections, I’ve learned to treat Fidesz’s propaganda with respect: no matter how blatantly false the message, how crude the messaging, they certainly have the means to make it stick.
What is more worrisome, in the artificial information reality that Fidesz has created in Hungary, being an opposition voter doesn’t keep you from believing some of the lies of the regime (as shown by the after-election poll in which 20% of opposition voters declared to believe that Márki-Zay would send Hungarian troops to the war in Ukraine)!
Péter Krekó of Political Capital has written about how Orbán’s is no longer the typical populist regime which detects what public opinion wants and gives it back to the people multiplied (something they were already very good at), but an informational autocracy that can actually shape and direct the ideas and opinions of the population in any way they want.
As such, the Hungarian population is now at a serious risk of becoming so misaligned with the rest of EU public opinion (and so aligned with Russian public opinion) that they will, in fact, become the “Martians” among their neighbours that they’ve always feared to be.
A regime that is clearly benefiting from the brain drain while the country is not.