The Republikon Institute’s research [1] was conducted in September, and it examined the evaluation of the handling of the pandemic during the first wave, people's judgment of the state of human rights during the coronavirus, and how they view the European Union’s role in the fight against the pandemic.
Since September, the situation got worse: the virus has been spreading in both countries and serious measures have been introduced. In spite of this, we think that the findings of the analysis can serve with a lot of important and valuable information that can help to understand both the processes in Hungary and in Slovenia, even now, at the end of November/beginning of December.
The main findings of the research
• The populations of both countries were critical of the political situation and the government's strategy for coronavirus: Hungarian respondents who were satisfied with the government's work in this area in recent months were undoubtedly in the minority.
• In the fight against the coronavirus, the majority of Slovenian respondents considered individual responsibility the most important, while Hungarians highlighted the importance of doctors. Considering the measures, the majority of Slovenian respondents think that limiting the number of participants at events is an important measure, while the majority of Hungarian respondents mentioned wearing masks as a crucial step in the fight against COVID-19.
• People living in Slovenia generally think that the state of human rights has become worse during the pandemic, the Hungarian respondents seemed less pessimistic in connection with that topic.
• During the pandemic, Hungarian respondents were more permissive considering the closing of the borders in the EU, but half of the Slovenians insists on free movement.
• People in both countries considered the EU's level important in combating the virus and supported the EU's intervention if a national state would misuse its power as well.
You can read the full results HERE!
The research was supported by the European Liberal Forum (ELF).
[1] The Slovenian research was conducted with (online) interviewing 1043 respondents between the 17th and 21st of September 2020. The research is representative to the adult population of the country, in terms of gender, age and regions. The Hungarian research was conducted with phone interviewing 1000 respondents, between the 19th and 25th of September 2020. The research is representative to the adult population of the country, in terms of gender, age, level of education and type of township