| Still
strong concerns about possible spillover effects BUDAPEST,
HUNGARY – The Hungarian public watches events in the neighboring Yugoslavia
very closely. Hungary-assisted air strikes are on the top headlines in news media, the
fate of their fellow Hungarians living in Vojvodina became predominant issue of public
discourse.
SUPPORT FOR THE AUTONOMY OF
KOSOVO
The immediate reaction 70 percent
support grew to 74 percent as conflict escalated in the previous two weeks, three-quarter
of respondents support political autonomy for the Albanians in that province. A year ago,
when Kosovo crisis begun in March 1998, the support for autonomy was at 61 percent among
Hungarians.
62 percent of those polled agree
that Vojvodina should enjoy political autonomy as well. This is a two percent decrease
from last survey conducted two weeks ago.
SUPPORT FOR NATO BOMBING
Two weeks after the
bombings have started, 61 percent are in favor, 33 percent oppose the military actions,
while 6 percent are undecided. These figures remained virtually unchanged from the last
poll.
Two weeks ago we detected wide
differences along gender lines: 72% of men, and only 52% of women were fully supportive of
the bombings. This gap closes as time goes by: today we measured 67 percent support among
men and 57 among women.
The scepticism is growing in terms
of expected achievement of the political goals of the military action. The day after the
bombing started 44 percent of the public expected to gain all the expected results of the
air strikes within a month. Today 16 percent have the same opinion. Last time 36 percent
could not predict the end of the crisis, right now this is at 41 percent. The ratio of
those who say that air strikes will never achieve the political goals of international
community rose to 26 percent from the previous 11 percent.
CONCERNS ABOUT SPILLOVER
EFFECTS
There is a decreasing but still
considerable fear of possible spillover effects, 45 percent of the public is concerned
that the war may spread over to Hungary. This is down from last poll's 54 percent.
Methodology
The results are based on 510 telephone interviews with adults in Budapest, the capital
city of Hungary, 18 years of age and older, conducted on April 8, 1999. A sample of this
size is accurate within a 4,8 percentage point margin of error, 19 in 20 times
the raw output
previous release
1998 March opinions regarding possible NATO intervention
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