One-fifth of pro-govt voters are against EU membership?
One-fifth of pro-government voters would reject Hungary’s European Union membership, a Socialist MEP said on Tuesday, citing a survey.
Istvan Újhelyi told an online press conference that the Publicus Institute survey commissioned by Social Democrats of the European Parliament found, however, that if a referendum were held now, 86 percent of Hungarians overall would vote to keep the country in the bloc.
At the same time, 48 percent agreed with the statement that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party wanted to lead Hungary out of the EU, Újhelyi said.
Fully 75 percent of respondents were aware the country was missing out on some EU funds because of issues connected with the rule of law and corruption.
The Socialist politician said most respondents did not think this was connected with the issue of “LBTQ activists promoting gender reassignment surgery in kindergartens”, referring to the government’s stance that the funds had been withheld because of the amendments to Hungary’s child protection law, which the EU has called discriminatory against the LGBTQ community.
András Pulai, the strategic director of Publicus, said the survey conducted in early February was based on a representative sample of 1,000 respondents and another 1,000 opposition voters to gain more detailed data on that demographic.
He insisted that Fidesz had “ratcheted up anti-EU rhetoric in the past three or four years,” adding that EU-sceptic Fidesz voters had been the most susceptible to those arguments, while they had no effect on opposition voters.
Most respondents said the rule of law was the value that needed the most protection, a view that might have changed with the war in Ukraine, he said.
Despite “state propaganda”, 27 percent of pro-government voters saw the state of the rule of law in Hungary as problematic, he said. A significant majority would increase the EU’s jurisdiction in policy areas such as the fight against corruption, the rule of law, and the organisation of health care and education, he said.
On another note, the Hungarian Democratic Coalition has accused the government for using the vaccine registration e-mails for campaign purposes.
The government is campaigning against the opposition and the European Union by sending messages to email addresses originally provided for vaccine registration, an opposition candidate of Veszprém, in western Hungary, said on Tuesday.
Balázs Csonka told an online press conference that the cabinet had made it general practice to use all possible means for propaganda.
People who registered for a newsletter by the government communication centre were originally promised information related to vaccination but the cabinet has been continually using this platform for spreading its “lies and propaganda,” he said.
Csonka said messages were being sent out regularly “bashing Brussels and the Left and making seriously false statements”. Anyone with a clear mind can see that the sanctions against Russia are not just “vile plotting” by Brussels and the Hungarian Left.
Read alsoThe Russian-Ukrainian war is taking its toll on Hungarian tourism
Source: MTI
The PMs head is as big as his waistline! No way could Hungary survive coming out of the EU whatever spin the government may put on it.
Don’t for one minute think it’s going well for the UK, because there’s all sorts of problems and many now regret leaving.
Hungary has survived without the EU for over 1000 years The country has always trusted its people and the people’s ingenuity, No amount of money is worth ceding sovereignty to Brussels’ dictatorship.
Hungary ASKED to become a member and signed a legally binding contract to do so, sharing some but not all of its sovereignty. End of argument. As for trusting its people’s integrity, it was Hungarians (in government and aided by the police Aztec) that implemented the repression demanded by the Russians after 1956. Being Hungarian is no guarantee of someone being trustworthy – as the current government shows only too clearly..
A socialist government conned the people of Hungary into joining the EU. The EU parliament has changed over the past 30 years. It became a Marxist socialist government. It is totally intolerant even though its motto is United in Diversity. Any society that can be joined can also be exited. The number of Hungarians that wish to exit the EU keep growing. The EU is nothing but a petty dictatorship that ruined the EU.
Hungary will not survive outside the EU, but as always mariavontheresa knows our country better than we do.
If she has some ideas on how we can prosper outside the EU then by all means tell us