According to the latest statistics by Eurobarometer, Hungarians are not very tolerant of people from backgrounds other than their own.

As reported by hvg.hu, Hungary is the only country in the European Union where the number of people who wouldn’t want a Muslim colleague or family member has increased.  Eurobarometer has found that Hungarians are most likely to discriminate against homosexuals, gypsies and non-Christians.

This was the largest ever study conducted by the organisation, with 27,438 people surveyed from 28 EU member states, including 1,027 Hungarians. Across the whole study, 61% of participants believed that the Roma population faces the highest level of discrimination in the EU.

Hungary was one of the few EU member states where discrimination has increased since the previous survey in 2015.

Hungary has improved in certain respects; 81% of respondents would not mind voting a female candidate in the 2022 general election. However, 40% of those surveyed would find it uncomfortable to have a homosexual prime minister. In fact, they would rather have a Roma prime minister than one who is attracted to his or her own gender.

Day-to-day interactions

In their day to day lives, 33% of Hungarians are weary of working with transsexual colleagues. This is considerably higher than the 12% EU average.  34% of Hungarians would not want to work with Muslims either.

Interestingly, black people face less discriminative attitudes than the Roma people and Muslims. Indeed, “only” 42% of Hungarians would feel uncomfortable with their child dating a black partner. This category was 49% and 44% for Muslims and gypsies respectively.

51% of Hungarians do not want LGBT+ studies included in the education system. This may mean that anti-LGBT+ attitudes may continue to persist in the near future.

Government influence

Most shockingly, the proportion of Hungarians willing to work with a Muslim colleague has dropped from 48% in 2015 to 37% today.  It appears that the government’s anti-migration and pro-Christian propaganda has influenced Hungarians’ outlook on the world.

However, it is difficult to generalise from this survey. The study only included 1,027 Hungarian participants, and attitudes may differ in different parts of the country.

The Hungarian foreign minister has stated that it is in Hungary’s interest for Turkey to solve the Syria migration issue. We also wrote that the Hungarian government does not believe that the redistribution of migrants will solve the migration crisis.

Featured image: https://www.facebook.com/UNHCR

Source: hvg.hu, ec.europa.eu