6 out of 10 Hungarians (59 percent) or nearly 5 million people have a good opinion of the US. Only 1 in 5 (22 percent) said they had a bad opinion, which is half of the Central European average (40 percent), according to a Nézőpont Intézet survey conducted in twelve Central European locations.
One of the most significant and long awaited diplomatic meetings is taking place in the US between Donald Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Republican-led US foreign policy differs from that of the Democrats’, which lacked focus on Central Europe, while at the same time Western Europe appears to be increasingly turning away from the US. Cooperation with the great power may benefit the Central European region. Central European public opinion polls show that the majority of the population (54 percent) have a good opinion of the United States, and that fewer people (40 percent) hold the opposite conviction. Support for the US is even greater among Hungarians. 6 out of 10 (59 percent) think positively of the United States, and only 1 in 5 (22 percent) do so negatively.
Hungary has a definitely pro-American majority. There is no significant demographical, sociological, or political group where anti-American sentiments would prevail.
In Central Europe, V4 Member States are the most committed to the US. When asked, “Please tell us whether you have a good or bad opinion about the United States”, most pro-American responses were given by Polish (66 percent), Czech (62 percent), and Hungarian (59 percent) people among the V4s. Even more Romanians (79 percent) have a good opinion of the US. Interestingly, only in the case of Austrians (59 percent), Slovenians (60 percent) and Serbians (61 percent) had the majority of people held a bad opinion about the US.
Methodology
The Nézőpont Intézet survey was conducted between 1-27 February, 2019 in twelve Central European countries and regions (Austria, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, East Germany, Bavaria) involving 1,000 respondents in each or 12,000 in total. Samples are representative of the relevant adult population by gender, age, region, type of settlement and level of education. All data are given in percentages, their sums may differ from 100 due to rounding.