A new opinion poll paints a strikingly negative picture of how Hungarian voters now view Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power, with a majority selecting “mafia state” among the two terms they believe best describe his former political system. Seven in ten respondents also said they believed corruption under the Orbán governments had been organised systematically from the top.
The findings come from a survey by Hungarian pollster Medián, reported by HVG. The figures measure voters’ perceptions of the former government and should not be interpreted as legal findings concerning Orbán or individual former officials.
Majority associate Orbán system with ‘mafia state’
Respondents were asked which expressions best described the political system established under Orbán.
Of seven possible descriptions, 37% chose “mafia state” as their first answer. “Civic democracy” was selected by 15%, “autocracy” by 14%, while 13% chose the government’s own term, the System of National Cooperation, commonly known by its Hungarian abbreviation NER.
When respondents’ first and second choices were combined, 53% selected “mafia state” as one of their two preferred descriptions.
That represents a marked change from 2023, when the corresponding figure stood at 34% – an increase of 19 percentage points in three years. The proportion choosing descriptions linked to autocracy remained broadly unchanged, while references to dictatorship and civic democracy declined slightly.
The result suggests that perceptions of corruption and the relationship between political and economic power have become increasingly central to how many voters remember the Orbán period.
Another perspective – Viktor Orbán on the past 16 years: everything was lawful and appropriate, all else is political propaganda
Seven in ten see corruption as systemic
The poll also asked respondents about alleged financial abuses during the Orbán governments.
Three quarters of voting-age Hungarians said such abuses had characterised the government to a large extent: 60% described their extent as “very large”, while another 15% selected the next-highest category. Seven in ten said they believed corruption during the NER period had been centrally organised and systemic.
Age produced a substantial difference.
Among voters younger than 30, 82% described the scale of abuses as very large. Among respondents aged 65 and above, the figure fell to 46%.
Political affiliation produced an even sharper divide. Some 89% of supporters of Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s Tisza Party selected the “very large” category, compared with just 1% of Fidesz–KDNP supporters.
The enormous gap underlines how differently the Orbán era continues to be interpreted by Hungary’s competing political camps.
What Hungarians think about Orbán-linked businessmen
Another notable finding concerned businessmen who became exceptionally successful during the former Fidesz government.
According to the poll, 56% of respondents considered it very likely that some of these entrepreneurs had acted as frontmen, or “straw men”, for Orbán. A further 29% considered the possibility conceivable.
Taken together, 85% of respondents did not rule out such an arrangement, although this again represents public perception rather than proof of specific financial or criminal conduct.
Orbán and Fidesz have for years rejected opposition allegations that politically connected businessmen accumulated wealth on behalf of the former prime minister, and have frequently characterised corruption accusations against their governments as politically motivated.
Orbán’s legacy remains deeply polarising
Orbán served as Hungary’s prime minister from 2010 until the change of government in April 2026, after previously holding the post between 1998 and 2002. His governments reshaped Hungary’s constitutional system, media landscape and economy while repeatedly clashing with EU institutions over rule-of-law and corruption concerns.
The latest Medián figures do not show a uniform national view: attitudes remain strongly divided along party, age and education lines.
They do, however, indicate a significant change in the language many Hungarians use when assessing the former Orbán governments. Three years ago, roughly one third placed the “mafia state” description among their top choices. Today, according to Medián, more than half do so – making perceptions of corruption and concentrated economic power an increasingly prominent part of Orbán’s political legacy.
read more article about corruption in Hungary.
