This year, more than twice as many people like Viktor Orbán in Romania than a year earlier, according to a poll conducted by the Nézőpont Institute in Romania. Compared to 2020, the popularity of the Hungarian Prime Minister has increased more than threefold.
In the past year Viktor Orbán's opinion in Romania has improved significantly, and he clearly became a popular politician during the war and energy crisis. Six out of ten (57 percent) have a positive opinion of the Hungarian Prime Minister and only three (30 percent) judge him negatively. In every social group, there are more people among whom the Hungarian Prime Minister is popular than among those among whom he is unpopular.
The positive change in the perception of Viktor Orbán in Romania was already noticeable last year, with 10 percentage points more people having a positive opinion of him than in 2020 (17 percent). However, the real turning point came in the last year. During this time, the circle of those who sympathized with Viktor Orbán doubled: last year, those with a negative opinion were in a significant majority (65 percent) compared to sympathizers (27 percent), however, during the Russian-Ukrainian war and its economic effects, this ratio completely reversed.
Behind the positive turn, which probably surprised Hungarian public opinion, can be guessed the government's popular measures, which are also known in Romania, similar to which the government of our south-eastern neighbor did not adopt. In November 2021, Viktor Orbán announced the universal HUF 480 gas price cap, which applies to Hungarian motorists to this day. On the other hand, in Romania, the price of gasoline has doubled since the beginning of the year, and the Romanian government parties were only able to agree on fuel price compensation of 50 banis (40 forints) per liter this summer.
The two countries also take different positions on the issue of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Hungary abstains from weapons shipments, while Romania is one of the largest transit countries for American weapons, despite the fact that this is a divisive issue in the neighboring country. Based on research by the Nézőpont Institute, 50 percent of the Romanian adult population opposes their country supplying weapons to Ukraine, and almost the same number (48 percent) support it.
In addition, the fact that Russian Patriarch Kirill was removed from the European Union's sanctions list is not to be overlooked either thanks to Viktor Orbán's stand alone. It can be assumed that the support of the Orthodox Church leader is popular among Romanians, since according to the 2011 census, 86 percent of the population of Romania are Orthodox Christians.
Source: Point of View Institute
(Cover photo: MTI/Prime Minister's Press Office/Benko Vivien Cher )
