Poll finds vast majority of Hungarians openly anti-Roma

MTI

March 6

Over 80 percent of people asked in a recent survey were prejudiced against the Roma, Nepszava reports, quoting pollster Median.

Four fifths of the sample said that "Gypsies make no effort to fit into society."

Almost 60 percent of the respondents openly said that they thought "crime was in the blood of Gypsies," and 36 percent said that the Roma should be "separated from the rest of society".

The survey also established a correlation between citizens' political views and their attitude towards the Roma minority: the closer a respondent was to the far right, the more anti-Roma he was.

Median also noted that it was people of modest incomes in small villages that appeared the least intolerant of their Roma neighbours.

Hungary's Roma population is estimated at around 600,000. Only about 100,000 declared themselves to be ethnic Roma during the minority government elections in 2006, said the paper.

The paper also pointed out that while in the 1980s 70-80 percent of Roma men were employed, only 28 percent of them had jobs in 1993 -- the situation having stagnated or even deteriorated since then.