A new Eurobarometer survey has found that 70% of Hungarians say they are likely to vote in the June European Parliament elections. Altogether 65% of Hungarians say they are interested in voting on June 9, which is 15% more than those who said so ahead of the 2019 elections.
The survey found that a total of 46% of Hungarian respondents said they had a positive view of the EP as against 39% who said they had a neutral view and 14% who were negative. Altogether 56% said they wanted the EP to play a bigger role, while 9% said they wanted to keep the legislative body’s role as it is now, and 32% said they want it to play a less important role. Asked about their priorities ahead of the ballot, most Hungarians (39%) cited public health as the most important issue, followed by job creation (38%) and the future of the EU (35%). When it comes to areas the EU should focus on in order to reinforce its position in the world, 40% chose energy independence and infrastructure as the most important areas. This is followed by defence and security (34%), competitiveness, economy and industry (33%) and food security and agriculture (31%). Meanwhile, 77% said the EU had an impact on their daily life compared with 23% who said it didn’t. Concerning the benefits of EU membership, 77% said Hungary has on balance benefited from being a member of the bloc, which is 6 percentage points higher than the EU average.