Fidesz-KDNP won 96 percent of the vote in Hungary's ten poorest settlements, with some voting entirely in favor of the once again governing party.Continue reading
A strong correlation between low education and wide support for the party list of governing Fidesz was evident in the 2022 parliamentary elections, government critical economic news site G7 reports.
According to the portal, Fidesz achieved its all-time best result in terms of list votes in the 2022 parliamentary election. This success is also striking at the settlement level: the governing party’s support decreased in only 351 out of 3,200 settlements as opposed to the previous general election in 2018. In comparison, the six-party opposition alliance lost nearly 900,000 votes.
At the same time, the level of education had a strong influence on the share of support Fidesz received in a given municipality in the April parliamentary elections.
More precisely, the higher the proportion of adults aged 15 and over with no more than primary education in a given settlement, the more likely Fidesz is to have high party-list support. Thus, more adults with a high school diploma or higher education in a given municipality are associated with lower Fidesz support and vice versa, the portal found when analyzing the election results.
As an example of the correlation between Fidesz’s list results and the level of education, G7 cites the villages of Csenyéte with 442 residents, Bódvelenke with 211, Fáj with 426, Szakácsi with 182, and Tornadáska with 616 residents. These villages are all located in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county. In these places, the share of people with no more than primary school education ranges between 91 and 97 percent. Meanwhile, Fidesz’s party list support reached above 97 percent in all of these settlements, the portal reported.
In Fáj, this meant only one non-governing party vote, which went to the far-right Mi Hazánk (Our Homeland).
In contrast, Remeteszőlős, with a population of 915, Telk, with just over 3,000 inhabitants, and Diósd, with around 9,000 inhabitants – all three places found in Pest County – had the lowest share of uneducated people (those with no more than primary school education), at just 9-17 percent, while Fidesz’s list result in all three settlements was 43 percent.
The paper also notes that this strong correlation was already evident in the 2018 parliamentary elections.
As we have already reported, G7 also found that the poorest villages and settlements in Hungary voted overwhelmingly in favor of Fidesz-KDNP’s reelection.
Featured photo illustration by Benko Vivien Cher/PM’s Press Office/MTI