Fidesz's voter base deeply divided over government's handling of abuse in juvenile detention centre, poll shows

More than half of the Hungarian electorate is strongly critical of the government's response to what has become known as the Szőlő street affair, and even when it comes to its own voter base, Fidesz can only count on the support of a small segment in this matter, according to the results of a public opinion poll commissioned by Telex. The representative survey conducted by the 21 Research Center focused on finding out who Hungarians believe is responsible for the events at Szőlő street and how they view the government's communication on this issue.

In recent months, ‘Szőlő street affair’ has become the umbrella term used to describe the series of abuse allegations that have come to light regarding the events at a juvenile detention facility in Budapest’s Szőlő street. In May, police arrested the former director of the institution and his partner, under suspicion of human trafficking, forced labor, and also charged the man with multiple counts of abuse of public office and the misuse of a firearm. Since then, six more suspects have been questioned in the investigation. A total of six former employees of the institution are in custody, one is under criminal supervision and the arrest of another one has been requested. They are charged with various things, with several of them accused of having abused the minors held at the facility.

A quarter of those surveyed said they primarily blame the government for the abuse cases at Szőlő Street, 18 percent blame the institution's employees, 15 percent blame the director, and 5 percent believe the minors living there are responsible. How politicised the case has become is also evident from the extent to which the respondents' party affiliation determines their views on the question of responsibility.

While the majority of those who support the ruling party hold the institution's employees responsible, Tisza voters consider the government to be primarily responsible.

Twenty-eight percent of Fidesz voters blame the juvenile detention center's employees, while only half as many say the director is responsible. More than half of Tisza's voters (56 percent) say the government is ultimately responsible.

Among voters who support smaller parties, the proportion of those who believe that the government is primarily responsible for the whole affair (26 percent) and those who blame the director (24 percent) is roughly the same. Most unaffiliated voters had not heard about the case or were unable to answer the question. Of those who are unaffiliated but had heard about the case, most hold the staff of the institution as primarily responsible.

On a scale of one to five, where one is very poor and five is very good, 43 percent of respondents rated the government's response as very poor. An additional 9 percent rated it as poor, meaning that a total of 52 percent are dissatisfied with the government's handling of the situation. Only 15 percent considered it good (or very good).

It is therefore evident that on this issue, the government can only count on the support of a smaller segment of its own voter base, while

more than half of the entire electorate is explicitly critical of the ruling party's response, making this an extremely damaging issue for Fidesz.

Even pro-government voters are divided on the subject, with 11 percent rating Fidesz's response as bad, with only 43 percent satisfied with it. This is an unusually low percentage among the traditionally staunch pro-government voter base.

It is very rare for the vast majority of Fidesz supporters not to line up behind a measure simply because the word "government" appears in the question. And outside the Fidesz camp, there are hardly any satisfied respondents. Among Tisza supporters, there were none at all, while among the voters for other parties, 11 percent held this opinion, and among those without party affiliation, only 10 percent did.