PM Orban Reigns Supreme on Social Media

As social media gains increasing relevance in the political arena, how politicians fare in this space becomes crucial. Data from Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok shows that Viktor Orban is by far the most popular. In contrast, left-wing politicians are struggling to compete with each other for new followers.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban taking selfies with young people (Photo: Viktor Orban's Facebook page)

In recent years, social media has become an important forum for political communication, with a growing number of Hungarian politicians being present on the various sites. Initially, politicians were only on Facebook, but more and more are now appearing on Instagram and the increasingly popular TikTok. In terms of followers, Viktor Orban is the most followed politician in Hungary, with 1.2 million followers on Facebook, far outnumbering the stats of opposition politicians on the platform.

PM Orban is also doing well on Instagram, where he has 218,000 followers, and on TikTok, a platform where he's only been present for over a year, yet he nearly has 200,000 followers. 

Citing data published by Statista.com for July 2024, the Mandiner news portal highlighted earlier that the majority of TikTok users are between 18 and 34 years old. Thus, PM Orban is also very popular on a site used predominantly by young people.

If we look at the social media pages of leading politicians on the left, there's a huge gap netween them and PM Orban in terms of number of followers. Former PM Ferenc Gyurcsany lags far behind Viktor Orban on all three platforms, with 327,000 followers on Facebook, 44,000 on Instagram and roughly 21,000 on TikTok. It is worth pointing out that although DK's leader posts on Facebook almost every day, his follower base is not growing. DK's other major politician, Klara Dobrev  (Mr. Gyurcsany's wife), has an even weaker social media presence with 150,000 followers on Facebook, 13,000 on Instagram and just over 1,000 on TikTok. 

On social media, it is also becoming clear that Peter Magyar, the new darling of the left, can only struggle to compete with the old left in terms of followers. The chairman of the Tisza Party has already surpassed Mr. Gyurcsany on Facebook with 367,000 followers, and the same is true on Instagram (117,000 followers) and TikTok (98,000 followers). However, Peter Magyar's social media following is still far behind that of Prime Minister Orban.

Interestingly, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony has 327,000 followers on Facebook, the same as Ferenc Gyurcsany. On TikTok, where he has 97,000 followers, he is neck and neck with Peter Magyar. With 78,000 followers on Instagram, the number of those who follow Mr. Karacsony's posts falls between the follower base of DK chief Ferenc Gyurcsany and Tisza Party president Peter Magyar. 

Anna Donath, the failed chairwoman of the opposition Momentum party, has struggled not only in the European Parliament elections but also on social media. The politician from the self-declared youth party has only 9,000 followers on TikTok and is only competitive with other left-wing politicians on Facebook (96,000 followers) and Instagram (21 followers).

MSZP is becoming increasingly insignificant both on the political scene and on social media. The outgoing co-chair of the party, Agnes Kunhalmi, is also lagging behind online.

Ms. Kunhalmi has 46,000 followers on Facebook, 9,000 on Instagram, and 5,000 on TikTok, reflecting the socialists' declining influence. It is worth noting that Laszlo Toroczkai's Facebook and Instagram pages have been blocked, but the president of the opposition Our Homeland (Mi Hazánk) party still has 125,000 followers on TikTok.

Cover photo: Prime Minister Viktor Orban taking selfies with young people (Photo: Viktor Orban's Facebook page)