SURVEY – Majority of Hungarians oppose quota system

Budapest (MTI) – The majority of Hungarians do not agree with the European Union’s quota system designed to distribute migrants among member states, according to a survey carried out earlier this month by think-tank Szazadveg.

Fully 65 percent of Szazadveg’s sample of 1,000 adults said they disagreed with the proposal, with 30 percent backing the scheme, while 5 percent were undecided.

A total of 75 percent of respondents said they support Hungary’s border fence aimed at stemming the flow of migrants, while 23 percent were against the structure and 2 percent said they were unable to decide.

On the topic of a recent Eurobarometer survey which found that 74 percent of Hungarians “completely agreed” with the EU adopting mandatory migrant quotas, Szazadveg said the results had been “interpreted incorrectly” in Hungary and that comments about it in the press have been “misleading”.

Szazadveg said the survey indicated that “only 47 percent” of Hungarians would support mandatory quotas and strictly in the cases of genuine refugees. They said the survey specifically focuses on “refugees” as opposed to illegal migrants in general.

The think-tank noted that the quota system had the backing of less than 50 percent of respondents in the other Visegrad Four countries as well.

Szazadveg said that over the past couple of months, other Hungarian research firms have also found that the majority of the population rejects the quota system

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