According to a public opinion poll conducted during the Hungarian flood protection, the Fidesz-KDNP (47 percent), DK-MSZP-P (8 percent), and Mi Hazánk (6 percent) have all strengthened, while Péter Magyar's party has slightly weakened (33 percent). Those parties have benefited that did not use the first days of the flood protection for political attacks.
The devastating flood that caused massive destruction in the countries of the region arrived in Hungary a week and a half ago. In the week before the disaster, the governing parties were leading the party race with 45 percent, followed by the Tisza Party (35 percent) with 10 percentage points behind. In addition, two other parties, DK (6 percent) and Mi Hazánk (5 percent), were above the parliamentary threshold.
The Fidesz-KDNP's voter base has increased by two percentage points compared to the week before the flood, to 47 percent. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán personally monitored the most critical points of the flood protection on a daily basis from the very first day and provided regular updates on the situation. The appropriate, nationwide response to the disaster has strengthened confidence in the government.
The Tisza Party's voter base has decreased by two percentage points to 33 percent in the same period. Péter Magyar also appeared at the dikes in the early days of the flood protection, where he attacked his political rivals, criticising the prime minister, the soldiers and the organisers of the flood protection. However, his aggressive activism in the early days of the disaster did not bring political benefits. It would be a bit early to talk about a turning point, but the current popularity of the governing parties is equal to their support during the summer, while Péter Magyar's party has lost last week's party contest.
The same four parties would enter into the parliament, as indicated in the previous poll. In addition to the above, Ferenc Gyurcsány’s party has gained two percentage points to 8 percent, and the support for Mi Hazánk has increased from 5 to 6 percent.
Methodology
The latest opinion-poll of the Nézőpont Institute was conducted between 16 and 18 of September, 2024, by interviewing 1,000 respondents by phone. For all surveys, the sample is representative of the adult population (18 years and older) by gender, age, region, type of settlement and education. In case of a sample size of 1000 respondents and a confidence level of 95 percent, the margin of sampling error is ± 3.16 percent. The data have been rounded to the nearest whole number, so their sum may not add up to exactly 100. Respondent base = Hungarian voters, respondents who are willing to participate in a national parliamentary election.