As Hungary's April 12 general election approaches, opinion polls continue to indicate a slight lead for Peter Magyar, the challenger to long-standing incumbent Viktor Orban, though many voters remain undecided and results vary by polling institute. A poll published by Hungary's IDEA institute on Thursday found 30% support for Orban's Fidesz party, 39% for Magyar's Tisza party, with a potentially decisive 21% still undecided on their vote.

Another study published on Thursday by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) suggests that while Orban is not out of the running for a sixth term as prime minister, even his supporters are prone to disagree with him on some foreign policy points. It indicates that a majority of voters in the EU and NATO member state—and even around half of Fidesz supporters—would like to see changes in the country's antagonistic stance towards the EU. However, it also found voters were skeptical of support for Ukraine against Russia and opposed Kyiv's ambitions to join the bloc, highlighting divisions that could persist regardless of the election outcome.

Approval for the current US administration, which allegedly lobbies for Orban's reelection, split clearly along party lines. Three in four Fidesz supporters called Donald Trump a good leader for the US, while four in five Tisza supporters called him a bad one. A representative poll of 1,001 people conducted between March 26 and April 1 pointed to a majority desire for less friction in ties with the EU—overwhelmingly within Magyar's camp but also across about half of Orban's supporter base.

The ECFR's findings also suggested that these stark divisions on foreign policy questions might not prove decisive in Sunday's vote. For instance, only 6% of respondents—10% of Tisza supporters and 2% of Fidesz supporters—considered "relations with the EU" as the single most important issue facing Hungary currently. Tisza supporters instead pointed to corruption and governance (31%), public services (18%), and cost of living and inflation (17%) as their top three issues. Fidesz supporters, meanwhile, named energy security (22%) and cost of living (20%) at the top, underscoring a focus on domestic concerns over international alignments.

Source: www.dw.com