About a fifth of Hungarians are receptive to extremist ideas, head researcher at Political Capital said at a discussion forum on Wednesday.
Surveys show that 21 percent of Hungarians embrace the values of the radical right, Peter Kreko said. This makes Hungary come third among European countries, after Ukraine and Bulgaria, in terms of the proportion of extremists in the entire population, Peter Kreko said.
Presenting the study “Social demand for extremist views in Europe”, to be published in Thursday’s weekly HVG, Kreko said that when society leans towards extremism, it makes not only radical parties more popular, but centrist parties tend to opt for more radical messages, too.
In Eastern Europe, it is a general feeling of discomfort and economic instability that puts the wind in the sail of radicalist movements, while in the west it is antiglobalism, he said.
Poland and Hungary were similar in the proportion of extremism in their countries in 2003, but since then, in Hungary extremist views have grown while in Poland the trend has waned.
A 2009 survey showed 52 percent of Hungarians being prejudiced. Hungarians have lost faith in the government, democracy and even in the United Nations, according to the survey.
Chief executive of Political Capital Krisztian Szabados said their research team had compiled an index to measure extremism and collected data in 32 countries over the past eight years, seeking to gauge the presence of prejudices, chauvinism, right-wing values, opposition to the political system, distrust and pessimism. The results showed that there was rising reception towards extremist views in Eastern Europe as opposed to the west, where only southern regions appeared thus inclined.
“This raises a new kind of iron curtain, based on ideology,” Szabados said.
Peter Vass, chief editor of HVG, said the rise of extremism was a topical issue which would feature in Hungary’s general election campaign, too.
Hungarians are waking up, the corruption and ignorance of Neo Liberalism has been exposed, even pockets of western society are waking up.
Surveys show that 21 percent of Hungarians embrace the values of the radical right, Peter Kreko said. This makes Hungary come third among European countries, after Ukraine and Bulgaria, in terms of the proportion of extremists in the entire population
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Law, not even that you ‘Hungarians’ can do as number 1
Beaten by both the Ukraine and Bulgaria, must be hard
And this is very far from the goal of 2/3rd Gábor Zázrivecz (aka Vona) already promised supporting the ideas of Jobbik
Seems like you cannot trust any name-shifter
So, does this mean Hungary is becoming a haven for racism? How does this affect other minorities (Blacks, Chinese, non-Hungarian Slavs)? Or is all this rightest feeling towards Jews and Roma?
@Concerned Resident: MTI’s write up of this is interesting because most people reported the most significant data as this: “Extremism has more than doubled in the last 6 years” from 10% to 20.7%.
Saying ‘one in five’ downplays the significance of this survey. The important part is the scale of the trend and its direction, not the absolute amount. Plenty of other most interesting things coming out of this data, too.
The last 3 years or so the Government has been saying similar things to this, that the right-wing extremism is increasing
On Pestiside and on this site we had several editorial pieces during these years claiming that these claims on rising right-wing extremism was just hot air and politics from the Government to cover its own bad showing
Maybe some reflections, Eric and Adrian?
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Personally I would state that non-MSZP/SZDSZ-peoples reluctance to take the issue seriously enough and hence making the issue with right-wing extremism a more party-political issue, than a by-partisan issue, has made it grow
To be a right-wing extremist has become being anti MSZP/SZDSZ, which is just a victory for the extremists and a loss for the people in Hungary that still want change in Government, but do not want to have Jobbik-style of policies
3rd?!?! Thought we were better than that
. Maybe next year we can do better? 
@Vand – yeah, I see what you mean of course – I parse such data for a living. It IS interesting the way they state it. And of course, the important bit is trend. I am concerned though about toward whom it’s pointed at; I’ve got friends here and there of all sorts and they’d be interested to know if they’re under the gun, so to speak.
It would appear that LMP candidate for Pécs/Kozarmisleny is a lady called Bokos Sára,is she not the same lady who was ‘dismissed’ for misappropiating school funds from the Pécsi Reformatus Gimnazium?
Politics can be different:) indeed!
I wait to be proven wrong!
I wait to be proven wrong!
Ricsi at February 11, 2010 9:22 PM
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Do you have any links to impartial info on that case, or is it anecdotal information?
PiP at February 11, 2010 10:06 PM
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http://www.politics.hu/20100126/vona-reveals-jobbiks-enemies-list-imf-united-states-israel-slovakia-and-terrestrial-commercial-television-stations#c142
If wanting to live free and save in their own country is extreme to those who want to turn Hungary into another Palestine than I hope every Hungarian becomes and extremist.
If wanting to live free and save in their own country is extreme to those who want to turn Hungary into another Palestine than I hope every Hungarian becomes and extremist.
Mark at February 12, 2010 8:17 AM
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Please tell us again, in detail, how Hungary and Palestine resemble each other?
Because I cannot find any road-blocks, machine gun nest and even civilians running around with automatic guns, because this is what I saw every time I have visited Palestine and Israel (the first place is a bit hard to visit if you do not go through the latter place, at least if you, like me is claustrophobic and do not want to use the tunnels from Egypt)
But maybe you see some of them in the US, where you *claim* to live?
You must though have a sleeping disorder to post at those different, clear European, times you post