Although the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, by now Hungarian society has amassed a year’s worth of experience concerning the complex health, economic and social crisis it has given rise to, as well as the handling of the latter. Anyone who wishes to better understand what is happening in Hungary in 2021 should also try to ascertain how the voters view this period overall and the government’s crisis response specifically. Correspondingly, the goal of the joint research by Policy Solutions and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung was to find out how Hungarian society has experienced the past year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how they evaluate various aspects of the Orbán government’s crisis management efforts. Our research shines a light on Hungarians’ perception of the scope of the danger emanating from the pandemic and the kinds of difficulties they have had to endure during the past year, and it also looks at how their relationships have shaped up during the quarantine; how the financial situation of various social groups has changed; who Hungarians can rely on for help when they are in trouble; and whether the voters perceive that the government has done enough to protect Hungarians.

We used a survey conducted between 2-11 March 2021 as the basis of our analysis. Our partner in conducting the survey was Závecz Research. The 1,000 respondents we interviewed in-person during the third wave of the COVID-19 epidemic were representative of the Hungarian adult population in terms of age, gender, educational attainment and the type of municipality (national capital, county capitals, small towns and villages) they live in.

The English summary of the research can be downloaded from here.

Authors: András Bíró-Nagy - Áron Szászi