Peter Madyar, leader of the Hungarian opposition party “Tisa,” reported that only 600,000 Hungarians participated in the consultative referendum concerning Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. For comparison, the total population of Hungary exceeds 9.5 million people.
Madyar shared this information on his Facebook page. He noted that the Hungarian postal service returned about 7% of the ballots due to errors in filling them out. Votes cast through the online form accounted for a negligible portion compared to paper ballots.
“All of this aligns with information from government sources indicating that, contrary to propaganda lies, the total number of ‘voters’ may be at most 600,000. This is the lowest figure in the entire ‘glorious’ history of the National Consultations. And they (Orban’s government – ed.) ‘managed’ to achieve this in just a few months through total mobilization and burning tens of billions of state funds.”
– Peter Madyar
While the Hungarian government claims that about 2 million citizens participated in the referendum, Madyar points out that this number corresponds to the number of voters for Viktor Orban’s “Fidesz” party.
According to Madyar, approximately 3 million voters are ready to support the opposition party “Tisa.”
In early June, the Hungarian government launched a series of propaganda videos as part of the “national consultations,” claiming that the Ukrainian mafia is involved in arms and drug trafficking, and that Ukraine’s accession to the EU would allegedly lead to the unhindered infiltration of this mafia into Hungary. The videos feature Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Hungary Blocking Ukraine’s EU Accession
Since the beginning of 2025, Hungary has been blocking the opening of new negotiation clusters regarding Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. The country’s government argues that Ukraine’s EU membership would be a burden both for the bloc and for Hungary itself.
Ukraine’s Minister of Justice, Olena Stefanishyna, reported that since May 12, Kyiv has been holding regular consultations with Hungary to unblock the negotiation process.
On May 11, Hungary postponed negotiations on national minorities, which were scheduled for May 12, due to accusations from Kyiv of espionage against Budapest.
The consultative referendum in Hungary lasted from mid-April until June 20. The government’s ballot listed seven alleged threats to Hungary from Ukraine’s EU membership. It is important to note that the referendum results are not binding for the government to implement.
Additionally, the Hungarian government sent letters to citizens urging them to vote against Ukraine’s accession to the European Union during the referendum.