Romanians think that Hungary wants to take control over Transylvania

Russia is the most significant security threat, Hungary is the least friendly neighbouring country while the United States is interested in a strong Romania – a recently published survey says.

Romanians afraid of Russia and Hungary

Hungary meddles in the domestic affairs of Romania, and its goal is to take control over Transylvania – this is what the majority of the Romanians think about Budapest’s policy according to INSCOP, an institute of public opinion and research. In fact, INSCOP published its results on Monday and hvg.hu collected the relevant findings.

With the statement “Hungary meddles in the domestic affairs of Romania” 58.2 pc of the Romanians agree while even more, 62.6 pc of them said that Budapest’s goal is to

take control over Transylvania one way or another. 

The survey was made between 12 April and 3 May and 64.4 pc of Romanians agreed with the statement “Russia posed and poses the greatest national security threat towards Romania” and 59.2 pc of them would support increasing Bucharest’s defence budget.

Furthermore, Romanians think that Hungary is the least friendly neighbouring country: only 27.1 pc of them would put Budapest into the box of the benign states. In contrast, 78.5 pc of them think that the Republic of Moldova is friendly, 59 pc of them think the same in the case of Bulgaria while these numbers are 50 pc and 40 pc in connection with Serbia and Ukraine. Moreover, the overall impression of the neighbouring countries in Romania is that they are rather friendly states.

The only exception is Hungary

since 61.2 pc of the survey fillers did not agree with the statement that Hungary is a friend of Romania.

The 2/3rd majority of the answerers said that Russia is interested in weakening Romania and this rate is 60 pc in the case of Hungary. In contrast, NATO, the Republic of Moldova, the European Union and the United States is interested in a strong Romania.

Historic hostilities

More than 80 pc of the survey fillers would like to maintain the current or would even want a

stronger strategic partnership with Washington.

In fact, the survey was ordered by the Informational Warfare and Strategic Communication Laboratory formed in the Romanian Academy. The institute mostly deals with questions related to Hungary and Russia. They included 1,000 citizens in their survey; therefore, the error rate is 3 pc.

We reported HERE that Romania celebrated the 100th anniversary of gaining control over Transylvania. This was a massive victory for them, but a significant loss for Hungary. Even though in Romania it is commonly thought that the relevant decisions were made in a huge national assembly at Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia) on December 1st, 1918, the truth is that

the fate of Transylvania was decided in Paris

by mostly France and other WWI-winning great powers.

Since 1918 the Hungarian population of Transylvania has been decreasing significantly, and except for small territories like the Szeklerland, Hungarians lost their majority in most of the big cities and regions of Transylvania. Furthermore, even

the population of the Hungarian-populated regions is falling rapidly

– read more HERE.

Finally, since the Hungarian-populated areas paid more into but received less from the Bucharest budget, the Hungarian government launched an economic development program in the last couple of years. Secretary of state Levente Magyar announced the next phase of this program in Dumbravioara (Sáromberke), Romania, on Saturday.

Source: hvg.hu