70 per cent of Hungarians, that is equal to 5,6 million voters, including 1 million Budapest citizens eligible to vote would not like to see Ferenc Gyurcsány in a relevant political position – a survey by Nézőpont Institute showed.
The second round of the preselection in Budapest – with a low, 5 per cent voter turnout – proved that the second place won by Gyurcsány’s party at the European Parliamentary elections was only virtual. Olga Kálmán, endorsed by the Demokratikus Koalíció (Democratic Coalition), came second behind Gergely Karácsony, which might be linked to the rejection of the party’s leader in Budapest and across the country. Indeed, 69 per cent of the people of Budapest, ans 70 per cent of the full population would not like to see Ferenc Gyurcsány in a „relevant political position”.
It won’t be easy for Gergely Karácsony to reach his goal and become the mayor of the capital, as he should win with the endorsement from Ferenc Gyurcsány in autumn. Especially because he is one of the least popular politicians in Hungary, right after the leader of DK and Gábor Vona (who is rejected by 61 per cent of the voters), and tied with Klára Dobrev (47 per cent each). Only 14 per cent of the Hungarians would like to see Ferenc Gyurcsány in a ”relevant political position”, while this rate is 17 per cent for Gábor Vona, 19 per cent for Klára Dobrev, and 20 per cent for Gergely Karácsony. Unfortunately for him, the proportion of voters who reject him is high across the country and in the capital as well (the latter is 55 per cent). On the other hand, less than a quarter of the citizens of Budapest (23 per cent) prefer him.
The high level of rejection of the opposition politicians is contrasted by a broad support for the Hungarian prime minister. At the moment the most popular politician in Hungary is Viktor Orbán, as more than half (51 per cent) of the respondents, that is above 4 million people, would like to see him in a ”relevant political position”.
Method
The public opinion survey by Nézőpont Institute was carried out with telephone interviews of 1000 persons, between 7 and 11 June 2019. The sample is representative in respect of the population older than 18 years, by gender and age. In case of a sample size of 1000 persons and with 95 per cent confidence level the rate of sampling errors was 3,1 per cent. The sub-sample of the survey for Budapest was smaller (n=181), thus the data should be interpreted in light of this..