More Slovaks expect Hungary’s post-election political shift to damage relations with Slovakia than improve them, according to a new representative survey conducted by the AKO agency for TASR.
The poll found that 40.2 percent believe the change in Hungary will have a negative effect on ties between the two neighboring countries. That includes 5.8 percent who expect a very negative impact and 34.4 percent who expect a somewhat negative one.
By contrast, 34.9 percent of respondents said they believe the political change in Hungary will improve relations with Slovakia. Of those, 3.1 percent expect a very positive effect and 31.8 percent expect a somewhat positive one.
Among Slovak respondents, 39 percent expected relations to worsen, while 35 percent expected them to improve. Among respondents of Hungarian nationality, 41 percent predicted a worsening of relations and 39 percent expected an improvement. The most pessimistic group was respondents of other nationalities, among whom 46 percent expected a negative impact and only 25 percent expected a positive one.
The most pessimistic voters were supporters of the nationalist right-wing Slovak National Party, with 63 percent expecting relations to deteriorate and 20 percent expecting them to improve. They were followed by voters of the populist conservative We Are Family movement, where 61 percent expected a negative impact and 21 percent a positive one.
Among supporters of the right-wing Republika party, 53 percent expected relations to worsen and 30 percent expected them to improve. Voters of Prime Minister Robert Fico’s left-wing nationalist Smer-SD were also more pessimistic, with 51 percent expecting a negative impact and 28 percent expecting a positive one.
Negative expectations also slightly prevailed among voters of the ethnic Hungarian Hungarian Alliance, at 45 percent to 37 percent, as well as among voters of the conservative Slovakia Movement, at 44 percent to 40 percent. Supporters of the liberal SaS party were also more negative than positive, at 44 percent to 36 percent.
The expectation of an improvement in relations was stronger among voters of several centrist, conservative, and liberal opposition parties. Among supporters of the centrist pro-Western Democrats, 57 percent expected a positive impact and 36 percent expected a negative one. Voters of the Christian democratic KDH were also optimistic, with 50 percent expecting relations to improve and 32 percent expecting them to worsen.
Supporters of the liberal, pro-European Progressive Slovakia party were narrowly positive, with 47 percent expecting an improvement and 42 percent expecting a deterioration. Voters of the center-left Hlas-SD party, a Smer breakaway that is now part of Slovakia’s governing coalition, were also more optimistic, with 47 percent expecting a positive impact and 32 percent expecting a negative one.
Following Péter Magyar’s electoral victory in Hungary, ending 16 years of a Viktor Orbán-led government, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico called for a continued alliance with Budapest and a strengthening of the Visegrád Group.
“I want us to have good neighborly relations with our neighbors. We have a proverb that says that a bad neighbor is worse than a house on fire,” he said earlier this month. “I don’t know Péter Magyar personally yet, but we must strive to understand each other so that relations between Hungary and Slovakia are at the same level as during the time of Orbán.”
“We can only congratulate the winner of the Hungarian elections. We will be happy about the cooperation,” he added.
