Think-tank: Hungary is the voice of Europe

European citizens’ views on key issues chime with the standpoints of the Hungarian government, according to a survey by the Századvég Foundation.

“Hungary is the voice of Europe,” Áron Hidvégi, the think-tank’s deputy chief told an event at which the results of the research were presented and discussed on Thursday.

Fully 71 percent of Europeans agreed on the need for a rapid ceasefire in Ukraine and almost all rejected the idea of Europe sending soldiers to fight there, the survey found. With the exception of respondents in Norway, most believed that Europe was on the losing as regards sanctions against Russia is concerned, and two-thirds rejected tougher action against China.

Bence Tuzson, the justice minister, said the results showed that “the European elite and society think fundamentally differently”.

He called it a “problem” that the poles of European power were changing, with the European Commission increasingly subsuming the powers of the European Council and starting to behave like a government. This was leading to the disintegration of the bloc, he added.

He said the government was guided solely by the national interest, while in the majority of the member states ideological pressure was “so strong that the national interest is suppressed”.

The survey was carried out in 27 EU member states, as well as in the United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland, with thousands of people interviewed in each country.

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