The vast majority of adult Hungarians (63%) do not find it acceptable that the campaigns of domestic parties and politicians are directly or indirectly financed from abroad, according to a recent nationally representative survey conducted by the Center for Fundamental Rights.
The National Information Center considers „foreign, direct and organised influencing of voter decision” a national security risk, the Center’s recently published report dealing with the Left's foreign campaign financing reads.
According to the facts of the case, the left-wing parties received around €10 million in funds through organisations linked to US progressive circles, which they used during the campaign period for the 2022 parliamentary elections. The document also revealed that incumbent Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony, who had been considered the favorite in the left-wing primaries last year, had previously claimed that his campaign was financed by small donations in Hungary. This claim, however, seems to be groundless, as his fellow party member Gabor Perjes paid a total of HUF 506 million on 19 occasions into the account of the 99 Movement, founded and led by the mayor. However, the origin of the money, transferred mostly in euros and pounds, is obscure. The mayor’s explanation of his embarrassing involvement in money laundering and the unseen donation boxes are also laughable even to his left-wing allies.
Almost two thirds (63%) of respondents also consider unacceptable the direct and indirect foreign funding of campaigns of domestic parties and politicians.
The reason for the negative attitude may be that respondents cannot identify with the political messages of the opposition, which is a vocal representative of foreign interests. The voters want peace and not war, security and not parallel societies, and child protection instead of gender propaganda, the Center for Fundamental Rights says.
More than a third (35 percent) of left-leaning voters also reject foreign influence, the survey suggests.
The Center for Fundamental Rights’ poll was conducted by phone between 10-12 July 2023 using the CATI method. The sample of 1000 people is representative of the population aged 18 and over. Unavoidable variations due to statistical sampling by gender, age, region, type of municipality and education level have been smoothed using data from the KSH. In the cases where all respondents answered the question, the estimates differ by a maximum of 3.16 percent from the value for the population as a whole with a 95% confidence.
Cover photo: Mayor Gergely Karacsony, with Gergely Orsi, Mayor of District II, and Bence Tordai (Photo: MTI/Tibor Illyes)
