A large majority of Hungarians support law and order and reject violence, a survey by the Századvég Foundation reports.
The survey was conducted in light of the violent street protests that question the government’s legitimacy, and the majority of the population are against such action.
Over the past few days, several protests led by opposition politicians “led to violence and aggression” in Budapest. The demonstrators attacked police and tried to break into public buildings, damaging and burning property on the way.
The survey showed that 88 percent of the respondents had heard about the demonstrations, while 85 percent of the sample said that aggression against police, vandalism and lighting fires are unacceptable.
In total, 80 percent of the sample objected to opposition politicians “encourag[ing] supporters to commit violence,” while 15 percent called this attitude acceptable.
What’s more, 73 percent of the respondents said that violent demonstrations are an unacceptable method for toppling the government, while 25 percent considered it acceptable.
The Századvég Foundation conducted its survey between Sunday and Tuesday by phone, on a randomly selected sample of 1,000 adults.