Tisza’s “The Nation’s Voice” survey results are in!

In Hungary, Fidesz started doing this funny thing called “National Consultations” where about 10 questions are sent out in the mail and people get to have their say.

I kind of like the direct democracy element where views can be sought on specific topics, but the surveys were always made fun of because the questions were so leading e.g. “Do you agree with the Hungarian government that instead of immigration it should support Hungarian families and future children?” or “Would you support the Hungarian government in introducing stricter regulations that would allow the detention of immigrants who illegally cross the Hungarian border?” 

I mean you’re not really going to get too many people saying “No” to these types of questions.

In any case, now Tisza has done a similar thing called “The Nation’s Voice”. Although it was also teased for being similar to Fidesz’s National Consultation (e.g. too many leading questions), here are some of the reasons why Tisza likely took this approach:

• Not all the questions are “obvious” (although many are) so Tisza can be seen as genuinely asking for people’s opinions
• The survey gives Peter Magyar another “reason” to go on a regional tour where he can meet people, take selfies, give speeches and drum up responses
• The survey — what the questions are, how many people are taking it, the results — all put Tisza in the news again and again
• Tisza gets to practice its logistics and organising ability: Building an online voting platform, setting up voting booths all over the country, getting its volunteers organised and on message, ensuring its communication channels are in order, even just the printing and administration of the ballots… all of it helps build a well-organised apparatus that will be able to campaign more effectively before the next elections
• Future leaders and candidates within the party can start showing their mettle — how well do they coordinate in their local areas, how many survey responses are they able to get, are they able to build a network of volunteers
• Data collection. To fill in the survey you have to give your name, email and location. This ensures that Tisza further builds its mailing list ahead of the election in 2026, which it can then use to target voters with messages. According to Tisza 1,137,266 filled in the survey giving it a great database of emails.
• It wanted to show that it could run such a survey much more cost effectively than what the government spends (using taxpayer money) to run its national consultation. The secondary insinuation is that probably some of the money is stolen when a consultation is run using taxpayer funds — hence the inflated price.
• It can get an idea of what it’s voting base things about various issues. If an idea was popular it can more confidently take it to the next election. In addition it can use the result as validation that it is just giving the people what they want.