Orbán Announces Poll on Ukraine’s EU Accession – With a Catch

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced Friday that his country would hold a poll on whether its citizens think Ukraine should join the EU.

“We have the so-called national consultation scheme, which we use regularly to collect the opinion of the people, so we will use the same scheme just now,” Orbán said on Friday, referring to the proposed poll, according to Politico.

Balázs Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister’s advisor (no relations), also announced the planned poll on Friday.

Orbán has been a vocal opponent to Ukraine’s EU bid and has a history of blaming Kyiv for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Hungary was the only EU member state refusing to back a joint statement in arming Ukraine on Thursday.

However, Politico said the poll is probably not legally binding, and local media outlets said the Orbán government has a history of using vague and sometimes misleading questions in its previous polls.

Telex, a Hungarian news outlet, said a recent poll on so-called “sovereignty protection” had voters choosing between supporting the Orbán administration on its anti-EU stance or choosing to live in a so-called “migrant ghetto.” Telex said that as a result, voters who disagree are unlikely to vote at all.

Telex also questioned the turnout of Orbán’s so-called national consultation. It said that out of the 13 consultations in the last 13 years, very few have voted – of the eight million questionnaires sent out based on the number of registered voters, the one with the highest turnout only had 2.3 million participants – less than 30% of total voters.

Other Topics of Interest

Protests in Georgia Reach 100 Days

The wave of protests began spontaneously in Tbilisi and other Georgian cities last year on Nov. 28

As such, the poll is likely to be used to justify Budapest’s opposition to Ukraine’s EU bid.