TI corruption index

Commenting on the latest (2016) Transparency International corruption index, a left-wing columnist thinks that Hungarians feel powerless against corruption because no corrupt officials have been seriously punished for the past 25 years.

According to Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer survey published on Wednesday, one third of Hungarians think that Hungarian politicians are corrupt. 28 per cent of respondents say that corruption is a huge problem for Hungary, while 29 per cent consider migration an equally important issue. One fifth reported that they had paid ‘gratitude money’ for health care services. The report found that a growing percentage of Hungarians are unwilling to report corruption cases. Only 14 per cent of respondents, the lowest ratio in the 43 countries surveyed by Transparency International, felt that they could do anything against corruption.

Corruption is not the fault of Hungarian people, Tamás Bihari comments in Népszava. The left-wing columnist finds it sad that as many as one third of the population consider politicians corrupt and that most Hungarians seem to have given up hope that corruption can be rolled back. Bihari thinks that Hungarians resigned themselves to corruption because successive governments in the past 25 years appeared to ignore it. As very few officials have been successfully convicted, Hungarians feel powerless to fight corruption, Bihari concludes.

Tags: corruption