Who would win the 2018 elections in Hungary if social media decided?
Clearly, the probable winner of the April parliamentary elections is Fidesz – based on polls. However, social media like Facebook and Twitter give fairly different results. For example, according to the number of Facebook-followers Jobbik stands in the first place. The individual contest is lead by PM Orbán, but Jobbik’s PM candidate Gábor Vona is not far behind him. In fact, Twitter or Instagram falls much behind the importance of Facebook in Hungary.
Jobbik is the unquestionable leader on Facebook
In case of the biggest social media platform, all Hungarian PM candidates and political parties have a profile. In fact, the
most “popular” Hungarian politician is PM Viktor Orbán
with more than 565 thousand Facebook-followers. Second place goes to Gábor Vona, 493 thousand people follow his page. Interestingly, other politicians are far behind them. For example, former PM Ferenc Gyurcsány has 192 thousand followers, socialist PM candidate Gergely Karácsony has 135 thousand while LMP’s PM candidate Bernadett Szél has only 67 thousand followers.
The results are very different if we take a look at the popularity of the parties. In this case,
Jobbik stands in the first place with more than 471 thousand followers.
Second place goes to protest party Kétfarkú Kutya Párt (Two-tailed Dog Party) with more than 260 thousand followers. Interestingly, the governing party Fidesz is only third with 228 thousand followers. Socialists have 200 thousand, Gyurcsány’s Democratic Coalition has 94 thousand while LMP has only 78 thousand followers.
Twitter and Instagram are not that important for the elections
Using Twitter well is an important key to success in America, but in Hungary, it did not become that popular. Probably this is why
only two Hungarian major politicians have a Twitter-profile.
Gábor Vona has 1372 while Bernadett Szél 115 followers.
In case of parties, first place goes to Fidesz with more than 28 thousand followers. Second are the Socialists with 12.3 thousand followers while Jobbik is the third with 8,500 followers. Finally, LMP has 6.7 thousand followers.
In fact, the magnitude is nearly the same in case of Instagram. Among individual politicians, PM Orbán is the leader with 19,600 followers. Second place goes to Gábor Vona (8,601) while bronze medal belongs to Bernadett Szél (1,050). In case of parties, Jobbik is the most popular (5,852) while Fidesz does not even have a profile. Finally, LMP has 763, but Socialists have only 10 (!) followers.
All in all, it is clear that the balance of power in Hungary regarding politics is very different in the social media. Though Government parties lead Twitter and Instagram these are much less important platforms than Facebook. And on Facebook Jobbik is the unquestionable leader.
Source: Daily News Hungary