Polls still indicate that significantly more people support the governing parties than the opposition.Continue reading
Even amid pessimism caused by the war and the sanctions crisis, the mood of Hungarians has improved, and the governing parties have maintained their support since the 2022 elections, according to the latest opinion polls by the pro-government Nézőpont Institute and the opposition Medián.
The Nézőpont Institute told MTI on Saturday that despite the recent economic difficulties and the crisis caused by the sanctions policy, the public mood of Hungarians has improved, with the majority of them still supporting the governing parties, i.e. Fidesz and KDNP (Christian Democratic People’s Party).
According to a December survey by the Nézőpont Institute and Medián, two-thirds of Hungarians (66% each) still thought that things were going rather badly at the end of the year. However, Medián’s survey at the end of February and Nézőpont’s at beginning of March both showed that there were almost ten percentage points fewer pessimists (57-58%).
At the same time, according to the Nézőpont Institute’s poll, the share of optimistic Hungarians rose from 26 to 32 percent, while the Medián poll showed an even greater increase from 27 to 37 percent.
Nézőpont Institute last measured the popularity of political parties at the end of February, at the same time as Medián, and both surveys came up with similar support figures, despite supporting opposite sides of the political spectrum. The pro-government Nézőpont Institute examined the most likely list results of the parties on the basis of a base of certain voters, which showed that more than half (52%) of voters would support governing parties Fidesz-KDNP. Medián also found that within the group of “certain” voters who could vote, the government party would get more than half of the votes (51%).
The two polls similarly saw the Democratic Coalition led by former Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány as the largest opposition party, with 12% (Nézőpont) and 14% (Medián) support.
For the third most popular party, however, there is a slight difference between the two institutions’ data, but within the margin of error. Nézőpont measured support for the Our Homeland Movement (Mi Hazánk) at 9 percent, while Medián saw Momentum as a 9 percent force, the survey said.
It is clear that Fidesz has been able to keep its strength and public support since the April 2022 elections. Polls at the beginning of 2023 also showed the same tendency as the newly released surveys, seeing Fidesz-KDNP as the most supported parties with 50 percent of the votes. However, minor changes has happened since then, with Momentum gaining some power. According to Real-PR 93’s and Medián’s surveys in January, Momentum only stood at 6-8 percent, with the Hungarian Two Tailed Dog Party having the same or even bigger support.
In the new polls, the Hungarian Two Tailed Dog Party, which started out as a joke party, got the same support as Momentum i.e. 9 percent, with the latter party clearly gaining strength. The reason behind this could be that the party’s co-founder and current MEP, Anna Donáth, recently came back to politics after giving birth to her child, and her comeback could be seen as a renewal and hope for the future of the party. Although she is not the leader of Momentum, this could easily change and she could get more power if they want to gather strength for the European Parliament and municipal elections next year.
Featured photo via MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd