The Patriots for Europe party group has tabled a motion of no confidence against Ursula von der Leyen, among other things because she signed the Mercosur trade agreement without the approval of the European Parliament. The President of the European Commission consistently takes positions that run counter to the interests of the community on issues crucial to the future of the EU, such as the Russia-Ukraine war, competitiveness and migration, leading to growing criticism of her work. It is telling that four motions of no confidence were brought against von der Leyen in the European Parliament over the course of six months.
Growing dissatisfaction is evident not only among MEPs, but also among the general public. According to the results of Századvég’s latest Project Europe survey, more than half of Hungarians (53%) have an unfavourable opinion of Ursula von der Leyen, and only less than a third of respondents (30%) like her.
The German MEP’s rating is not much better across the EU as a whole: one and a half times as many EU citizens (38%) have a negative opinion of von der Leyen as have a positive one (24 %), and the proportion of those who disapprove of her exceeds that of those who approve in two-thirds of the Member States. What’s more, her approval ratings are steadily declining; in the first year surveyed, 32% had an unfavourable opinion of her, while 26% had a positive opinion.
Based on the survey results, it can be said that the Patriots’ motion of no confidence is in line with the expectations of the relative majority of Europeans and the absolute majority of Hungarians. Those Hungarian MEPs who do not support the motion are going against not only the Patriots, but also common sense and their voters.
In the first half of 2016, the Századvég Foundation conducted a public opinion survey covering the 28 Member States of the European Union to examine the views of European citizens on the issues that most affect the future of the Union. The Project28 public opinion survey was the most extensive ever, with a unique survey of 1,000 randomly selected adults per country, totalling 28,000. The main objectives of the survey were to gauge public sense of prosperity and to explore public attitudes towards the performance of the European Union, the migration crisis and rising terrorism. Following the surveys of 2017, 2018 and 2019, the Századvég Foundation, on behalf of the Hungarian government, continued the research since 2020 under the name Project Europe, which continued to reflect on the most dominant topics in European political and public discourse. The latest data collection took place between 8 October and 10 December 2025, involving 30,000 respondents in 30 European countries, using the CATI method.
