Guess how many Hungarians agree that some parts of the neighbouring countries belong to Hungary?

Among the NATO-members, Hungarians are on the top of the list having those countries that would like to get back territories from their neighbours. The question is acute since the 100th anniversary of the Peace Treaty of Trianon during which Hungary lost 2/3rd of its former territories is in 2020.

According to index.hu, Pew Research Centre did a survey in which they asked many questions about how member and non-member states of the NATO think about different questions about the state of the military cooperation. Among these, they included a question about which part of a neighbouring country people believe should belong to them.

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On the relevant list, Hungary became the first which means that among those countries, in which Pew Research did the survey the Hungarians agree the most that there are territories that should not belong to the neighbouring countries. This is, of course, not surprising since those who know the History of the country even at a minimum level are aware that there are more than

1.5 million Hungarians living near the current borders of Hungary

but in the neighbouring countries. 

The research centre says in its report that a median of 45 pc across the 16 NATO countries surveyed disagree, while a median of 35 pc agree with the statement that some territories of the neighbouring countries belong to them. The shares who agree are highest in Central and Eastern European countries.

About two-thirds of Hungarians (67%) agree that parts of neighbouring countries belong to them,

including 40% who agree entirely. In Turkey and Greece, these numbers are 58 and 60 pc with which they are in the second and in the third place. It would be good to know what 36 pc of the Italians or 46 pc of the Slovakians would like to occupy.

In Western European countries, trends are the opposite. In Sweden,  82 pc of the people are satisfied with the current borders of their country while this number is 74 pc in the Netherlands, 72 pc in the United Kingdom, 62 pc in Germany, 60 pc in Spain and 59 pc in France. In both the United States and Canada, people disagree that any parts of the neighbouring countries belong to them (73 and 65 pc). Only one-in-five Americans and a quarter of Canadians say the opposite while among the non-NATO members, 53 and 47 pc of the

Russians and the Ukrainians think that parts of the neighbouring countries belong to them.

If one examines what party affiliation those people have who support the idea that their countries should get back territories from their neighbours, the results show that they are more likely supporters of right-wing populist parties. Supporters of right-wing populist parties are more likely to agree with this statement for nearly every European right-wing populist party included in the survey. In Spain, for example, those who have a favourable view of Vox are 27 percentage points more likely to say parts of another country belong to Spain than those who do not have a favourable view of the party – the research says.

Source: index.hu