Despite government's policy on Russia, Hungarians don't feel close to it, survey finds

While in 2019, Hungarians felt that Poland was the European country closest to Hungary in terms of opinions, positions and interests, in 2024 this is true of Slovakia, according to a survey conducted by Závecz Research on behalf of 24.hu.

The survey also reveals that while the Orbán government has been pursuing a policy of its own – and very different from that of the EU – towards Russia,

Hungarians do not feel close to the state led by Vladimir Putin: only 2% of those surveyed named Russia as a country that shares our interests.

24.hu also wanted to know which countries Hungarians feel are the furthest away from them in terms of opinions, positions and interests. As it turns out, Germany and France took the top two places, with the Germans perceived as less distant than the French. Next on the list are Sweden with 16 percent, Belgium and the Netherlands with 12 and 10 percent respectively, followed by Austria and Romania with 4 to 5 percent. "It is thought-provoking that 12 percent of respondents think that all European countries are at a distance from Hungary" the paper notes.

A breakdown based on party affiliation reveals that the relative majority of Fidesz voters think Hungary cooperates most closely with Germany (45 percent believe so), while Russia is second (37 percent). Among voters of other parties, Russia comes in first with 47-71 percent.

"How much the Hungarian population dislikes cooperation with Russia is clear from the answers to the subsequent question. When asked which of the three listed countries Hungary should cooperate more closely with, 59 percent of respondents said Germany, 17 percent said the United States and only 10 percent said Russia. Moreover, while support for the Germans and the Americans has increased since 2019, support for the Russians has dropped a few percentage points," they write.

Among Fidesz supporters, however, 21 percent believe that of the three major powers listed, the country should cooperate most closely with Russia, and only 12 percent support cooperation with the United States.

At the same time, according to the survey people perceive Russia much more negatively today than they did years ago. In 2019, only 36 percent of respondents saw Russia's influence as negative, compared with 62 percent in 2024.