Poll: Hungarians are proud to be citizens of the European Union

Eighty percent of Hungarians are at least a little proud to be citizens of the European Union, but only one-third of them are very proud of this fact, a recent poll found. On the contrary, when it comes to national identity, more than half of respondents answered that they are very proud of being Hungarian.

Rtl.hu commissioned the Závecz Research Insitute to conduct a survey on the feelings of Hungarians regarding their national and EU identities. The Institute asked 1000 people aged 18 or over in a representative poll between 2 and 10 May.

They found that overall, respondents were proud of both their Hungarian and their European identity, a statement that does not change significantly even when party preferences are taken into account.

The majority of Hungarians are proud of their national identity

The Závecz Research Institute asked the 1000 respondents to answer the question

“How proud are you of being Hungarian?”

The possible answers were: very, a little, not at all, and did not answer/does not know.

Survey results show that 60 percent of Hungarians are very proud of being from the country. The most positive responses came from Fidesz-KDNP voters, of whom 74 percent were very and 23 percent a little proud of their Hungarian identity, adding up to a total of 97 percent of people who are happy to be nationals.

Similar figures can be observed among voters of opposition parties as well as among those who are not affiliated with any parties. Among these groups, roughly 45-60 percent were very proud of their Hungarian identity, and 25-45 percent were a little proud. Slightly higher among them, around 10 percent, were those who said they were not at all proud of being Hungarian.

Hungarians are proud to be citizens of the European Union

The other question of the survey, with the same possible answers (very much, a little, not at all, did not answer/does not know) was

“How proud are you of being a citizen of the European Union?”

Overall, 32 percent of those asked said they were very proud and 48 percent said they were a little proud to be EU citizens. However, 15 percent of all respondents were not at all proud to be European.

The DK-MSZP-Dialogue coalition voters were the most pleased about their European identity, with 48 percent very proud of being EU citizens and 44 percent a little proud.

The two most critical camps were Fidesz-KDNP supporters and those without a party, with only a quarter of both saying they were very proud to be European and 50-50 percent, respectively, saying they were only a little proud of this fact. Nonetheless, those proud to be citizens of the European Union still constituted a majority (75 percent in both cases) of these groups.

It is also true, however, that voters of the governing parties had the largest proportion of those who are not proud to be citizens of the European Union: 21 percent of Fidesz-KDNP voters answered “not at all” when asked by Závecz Research researchers.

Overall, the largest proportion, 26 percent, of respondents were very proud of being Hungarian, and a little bit proud of being European. The second largest group (24 percent) includes those who were very proud of both identities.

11 percent of Hungarians were prouder of being citizens of the European Union than of their national identities, while 12 percent were very proud Hungarians but not at all proud Europeans. The former were mostly found among opposition voters, while the latter was more typical for Fidesz-KDNP supporters.

Read also:

• Shocking: More than 50 percent of young Hungarians would leave Hungary – Read the statistics HERE
• Young Hungarians are strongly anti-immigration – Results of a recent poll HERE

Source: RTL