The survey indicates that the perception of politicians directly or indirectly involved in the armed conflict shows a deteriorating trend compared to May data. According to the survey,
Public opinion is calling for peace and compromise in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict
Eighty-three percent of Hungarians are calling for a negotiation and compromise in the Russian-Ukrainian war for peace as soon as possible, but the vast majority believe that the parties involved are not interested in making peace, according to a survey conducted by Századvég.
The perception of the actors involved in the war has further deteriorated
the proportion of those who disapprove of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky increased from 65 percent in May to 68 percent in June, while in the case of U.S. President Joe Biden, it increased from 62 percent to 64 percent.
It is important to highlight that Zelensky and his staff have recently criticised Hungary on several occasions, which may have played a role in the Ukrainian President’s popularity decline. (Among other things, Alexei Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, accused Hungary of having territorial claims against Ukraine and then threatened our country. Also, Zelensky complained that the Hungarian government had fought for an exemption from Brussels’ oil embargo proposal.)
The group of those who expressed a negative opinion of Vladimir Putin did not change throughout the period considered, the proportion of respondents was 72 percent in both May and June.
For the first time in June, Századvég also surveyed the perception of the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. In light of this, it can be stated that
almost half of the Hungarians (49 percent) have an unfavourable attitude towards von der Leyen,
while the proportion of those who have a positive opinion of the politician is 33 percent. Among other things, the unfavourable perception of the President of the Commission in Hungary can be attributed to the fact that, despite the dire situation caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war, she announced that Brussels would launch a rule of law mechanism against Hungary to freeze certain EU funds.
Hungary supports the promotion of peace but expects a protracted conflict
The fact that
more than four-fifth (83 percent) of those surveyed believe that the countries affected by the war should immediately sit down at the negotiation table and reach a compromise
shows that the Hungarian population is strongly supporting peace. In contrast, only 15 percent see that there is no room for a compromise solution and peace can only be reached if Russia loses and withdraws from all Ukrainian territory. At the same time, the survey shows that
that nearly three-quarters of the respondents (74 percent) expect the Russian-Ukrainian war to drag on,
and 22 percent believe the conflict is likely to end in the near future. Interestingly, the proportion of those who expect a prolonged war was 8 percentage points lower (66 percent) in May.
In this context, it can be stated that, according to Hungarians, the politicians involved in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict do not primarily seek to promote peace. Accordingly,
in the case of Vladimir Putin, 72 percent of those polled and in the case of Volodymyr Zelensky, 57 percent of respondents believe that, on the whole, these political leaders are on the side of war rather than making peace.
Joe Biden is believed by 61 percent of respondents to be interested in continuing the Russian-Ukrainian war. However, it is important to emphasise that
83 percent of Hungarians say that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is rather in favour of making peace.
Methodology
CATI method, n=1000, among the Hungarian adult population, data collection: June 2022