{"id":449908,"date":"2026-04-09T18:56:03","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T16:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/04\/09\/due-terzi-degli-ungheresi-si-fidano-dellue-divisioni-su-ucraina-e-posizionamento-internazionale\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T19:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T17:58:11","slug":"two-thirds-of-hungarians-trust-the-eu-but-there-are-divisions-over-ukraine-and-the-countrys-international-stance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/04\/09\/two-thirds-of-hungarians-trust-the-eu-but-there-are-divisions-over-ukraine-and-the-countrys-international-stance\/","title":{"rendered":"Two-thirds of Hungarians trust the EU, but there are divisions over Ukraine and the country\u2019s international stance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Despite the tension that has characterised relations between Budapest and Brussels during the sixteen years of Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong>\u2019s government, 68 per cent<\/strong> of Hungarian voters trust the European Union<\/strong>. This was revealed by the think tank European Council on Foreign Relations<\/a> (ECFR), as part of a poll<\/a> which surveyed Hungarians on a range of issues that could prove crucial in determining the outcome of this weekend\u2019s election: not only the country\u2019s relationship with Europe<\/strong>, but also views on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict<\/strong>, the role of Budapest in the world<\/strong>, judgements on the leaders<\/strong> of the world\u2019s major powers, and key domestic political issues<\/strong>. Around two-thirds of the sample say they “trust” the EU, with 43 per cent<\/strong> of Hungarian citizens hoping to see a “very different<\/strong>” attitude towards Brussels from the government that emerges from this Sunday\u2019s (12 April) elections in Hungary, whilst 25 per cent<\/strong> would be satisfied with \u201cminor changes<\/strong>.\u201d Only 19 per cent<\/strong> of those surveyed would like the new government to maintain the current confrontational approach<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Even a more complex issue such as joining the Eurozone<\/strong> enjoys fairly significant support: 66 per cent<\/strong> of those surveyed say they are in favour<\/strong> of abandoning the Hungarian forint to adopt the single currency, although in this case the figures among voters for TISZA<\/strong>, the party led by the pro-European centre-right candidate P\u00e9ter Magyar<\/strong>, <\/strong>are significantly higher (95 per cent<\/strong>) than those of Fidesz<\/strong> (43 per cent<\/strong>), the political party through which Orb\u00e1n has led repeated clashes with the EU in recent years. <\/p>\n

While these figures may prompt a sigh of relief among European leaders, the same cannot be said for the survey results on the Russia-Ukraine issue<\/strong>. According to the ECFR, “Hungary\u2019s historic opposition to EU actions on Ukraine remains evident,” highlighting what may be the “limits to how constructive the new government can be as a foreign policy partner.” The issue of EU financial support for Kyiv<\/strong>\u2014currently blocked by a veto<\/a> put forward by Orb\u00e1n\u2014remains a veritable taboo for a large part of the Hungarian electorate: 85 per cent of Fidesz supporters<\/strong> are opposed to it, but so are 48 per cent of those who will vote for TISZA<\/strong>. Similar percentages apply regarding Ukraine\u2019s accession to the EU<\/strong>, with 83 per cent<\/strong> of Fidesz voters and 40 per cent<\/strong> of TISZA voters opposed to this prospect. Finally, the data on Hungarians\u2019 views of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky<\/strong>, speaks volumes: he is viewed negatively by 84 per cent<\/strong> of Orb\u00e1n\u2019s supporters and by 42 per cent<\/strong> of Magyar\u2019s supporters. <\/p>\n

When asked about their overall view of Budapest\u2019s international standing, TISZA voters are once again aligning themselves with the European Union\u2019s position. A relative majority (40 per cent<\/strong>) views Russia as an adversary<\/strong> and Ukraine as a partner<\/strong>, while 77 per cent<\/strong> would like Hungary to pursue a foreign policy strategy based on closer cooperation with EU institutions<\/strong> and other Member States (only 11 per cent would prefer a balance between the West, Russia, and China; while 4 per cent would choose only Moscow and Beijing and 2 per cent the United States). Those who will vote for Orb\u00e1n, however, hold a completely different view: for the majority of them, Ukraine is the country\u2019s main enemy<\/strong>, while Russia<\/strong> should be considered a strategic partner<\/strong> by 51 per cent of them. Putin<\/strong>, alongside Trump<\/strong>, is the international leader most favoured by Fidesz voters<\/strong>, who are, however, more divided on what Hungary\u2019s global positioning should be: 25 per cent<\/strong> would like to see an equally positive relationship with the West, Russia, and China<\/strong>; 24 per cent<\/strong> would like to throw themselves fully into the arms of the United States<\/strong>; 16 per cent<\/strong> call for greater rapprochement with the EU<\/strong> and 14 per cent<\/strong> for a strengthening of ties with Moscow <\/strong>and Beijing<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

The foreign policy issues examined by the ECFR survey will inevitably play a part in Sunday\u2019s vote. But when the survey\u2019s respondents were asked to list the key issues<\/strong> at the heart of this election campaign, their answers confirmed that it will be domestic issues\u2014and the solutions proposed by the leaders to tackle them\u2014that will determine the final outcome. For 31 per cent<\/strong> of respondents, the priority is fighting corruption<\/strong>; for 22 per cent<\/strong>, energy security<\/strong> will be decisive; for 18 per cent<\/strong>, the quality of public services<\/strong>; and for 17 per cent<\/strong>, <\/span>the cost of living<\/strong>.<\/span> Only 6 per cent<\/strong>, however, will choose whom to vote for based on their view of relations with the EU<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to a survey by the European think tank ECFR, support for joining the single currency is also high, with 66 per cent of respondents in favour of abandoning the Hungarian forint in favour of the euro<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7899,"featured_media":414551,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[25833,33657,33728,26023,33729],"class_list":["post-449908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-elezioni-in-ungheria","tag-magyar","tag-orban-en","tag-rapporti-ungheria-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7899"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":449909,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449908\/revisions\/449909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}