According to a recent poll of the Nézőpont Institute, more than three-quarters of Hungarians (77 percent) were happy about Pope Francis’ visit to Hungary. The apostolic visit was a national unifier, as all social groups, even more than two thirds of left-wing voters (69 percent), were positive about it.
Just over a year and a half after the International Eucharistic Congress, Pope Francis has visited Hungary for the second time. After nearly 30 years, the head of the Roman Catholic Church has made an official apostolic visit to Hungary. The importance of his visit was further enhanced by the fact that Pope Francis is one of the few international figures who call for peace in the current times of war. The Nézőpont Institute has conducted a survey on how Hungarians perceived the Holy Father’s visit.
More than three quarters (77 percent) of Hungarian voters welcomed Pope Francis’ visit to Hungary. Only 7 percent said the opposite, half as many as those who could not form an opinion (16 percent).
The Holy Father’s visit was a nation-unifying event, since the apostolic visit has been received positively across all the political spectrum. 88 percent of pro-government voters, and even 69 percent of government-critical left-wing voters, welcomed Pope Francis’ visit to Hungary. Only 3 percent of pro-government voters had a negative opinion and 9 percent were unable to form an opinion, but even among opposition voters there were more who were unable to form an opinion (21 percent) than those who did not welcome the Pope’s visit (10 percent).
Methodology
The latest opinion-poll of the Nézőpont Institute was conducted between 2 and 4 of May, 2023, 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 sampling error is ± 3.16 percent. Respondent base = Hungarian voters, respondents who are willing to vote in the elections.