Survey: Hungarians do not find neighbouring countries antipathic

Budapest (MTI) – Hungarians do not find the neighbouring countries antipathic, a recent survey issued by Nezopont Institute on Monday showed.

Most respondents said that Hungary maintained good relations with the majority of its neighbours. More than half of the Hungarian adults interviewed said that inter-state relations were best with Austria, Slovenia and Croatia.

Some 48 percent said that Hungarian-Slovak relations were good, partly thanks to the “good-neighbourly links maintained in recent years”.

More Hungarians believe that inter-governmental relations with Ukraine and Serbia are good than those who believe that they are bad. However, when it comes to assessing Hungarian-Romanian relations, Hungarians are divided, Nezopont said.

“Whereas the partnership between (Hungarian Prime Minister) Viktor Orban and (Slovak counterpart) Robert Fico played a role in the positive assessment of Hungarian-Slovak relations, the often confrontational tone by the former Ponta government could have influenced the assessment of Hungarian-Romanian links which divided the sample,” Nezopont said. Some 52 percent said that Hungarian-Romanian relations should be improved.

The survey was conducted over the phone with a sample of 1,000 people between January 4 and 7.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters