On Friday, the Hungarian government sent out a survey to its citizens asking whether the European Union should give Ukraine more money or grant it membership, Reuters reports.
According to analysts, the move was made by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to bolster support. Liberal think tank Republikon reports that support for Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party has fallen 5 points over the past year while Hungary struggles with the highest inflation rate in the EU and slowing economic growth.
Fidesz is still backed by 29 per cent of voters, well ahead of his closest opposition rival with 12 per cent, but Orbán will be keen to reverse the decline ahead of European Parliament elections next June. Zoltan Novak, a political analyst at the Centre for Fair Political Analysis think tank said:
“A breakaway from the voter base has started (…) this campaign aims to stop that. This is a good tool to shake up their core voters.”
Another poll by Median also showed a 5-point drop in support for Fidesz’s party between February and October.
Orbán, in power since 2010, has feuded with the EU over the bloc’s freezing of Hungary’s access to billions of euros over concerns about democratic backsliding in the country during his rule, which Orban denies. Questions in the survey portray the EU as favouring Ukraine over Hungary, one of its members.
Earlier this week, Orbán said the bloc’s strategy of providing monetary and military aid to Ukraine had failed and that he was against starting EU accession talks with Kyiv.
His government has taken a different stance on Ukraine from the rest of the bloc, refraining from supplying arms and criticising EU sanctions against Russia, although it has ultimately supported all sanctions imposed so far.
