According to Hungarians asked, Hungary has largely good relations with the neighboring countries – a public opinion survey conducted by Nézőpont Intézet for the Charta XXI Reconciliation Movement reveals. Respondents consider relations with Austria, Slovenia and Croatia best, more than half the Hungarian adult population think that the State of Hungary has positive relations with these countries. Nearly half of Hungarians (48 percent) consider Hungarian-Slovakian relations to be just fine, which is probably influenced by good relations developed with Slovakia over the past years.
Just as the partnership between Viktor Orbán and his Slovakian colleague Robert Fico has a doubtless influence on the positive assessment of Hungarian-Slovakian relations, the often confrontative rhetoric of the previous Ponta government likely affected Hungarian-Romanian relations, the assessment of which divided respondents. While more respondents have a positive than a negative image of bilateral relations with Ukraine and Serbia, Hungarians are more divided in the assessment of Hungarian-Romanian relations. The majority (52 percent) nonetheless would be happy to improve Hungarian-Romanian relations.
About the Charta XXI Reconciliation Movement
Taking the historic German-French atonement as its basis, the movement sees reconciliation as the guarantee for Hungary’s success. According to its manifesto, cooperation between citizens is necessary for the peoples of Central Europe not to look at each other with distrust. The movement’s chief objective is the formation of rock-solid bonds between “human and human”. (chartaxxi.eu)
Methodology
A public opinion telephone poll by Nézőpont Intézet completed during January 4-7, 2016 by asking 1000 people. The sample is representative, pertaining to a cross-sample of the population 18 years and older, classified by gender, age, region, settlement type and schooling. Samples using 1000 respondents has a maximum margin of error of 3.2 percent.
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