Hungary

While researching this page, we thoroughly checked whether Hungary has an equivalent of Student Elections — a nationwide project in which high schoolers run their own secret ballot on the real candidates and parties, timed to an actual election. We could not find one. Based on the available sources, this kind of practice has long been absent from Hungarian civic education.

What this conclusion is based on

Hungarian sociologist Sik Domonkos, writing on civic education, explicitly contrasts Hungary with countries that do hold a "mock vote" among secondary-school students shortly before a real election — naming the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Poland, and Finland — and states that Hungary's domestic practice is limited to knowledge transmission. A more recent PhD dissertation on Hungarian civic education (Corvinus University, 2023) independently confirms that school-based civic education in the country remains "empty and dysfunctional," and that most surveyed teachers do not include preparing students for political participation among their goals. None of the newer sources we checked (2022-2026) mention any such program existing.

Related, but not equivalent, initiatives

Hungary has a handful of youth civic-education projects, but none of them replicate a secret-ballot vote on real parties and candidates inside schools:

  • FÅ‘városi Diákönkormányzat (Budapest Student Self-Government) — an umbrella body for nearly 300 Budapest secondary schools, founded by students in November 2023. School delegates elect their own leadership, but this is an internal student-government election, not a simulation of a national or EU election.
  • "7IGEN" — an alternative referendum on education policy, organized in October 2023 by the civic group aHang and the Egységes Diákfront (Unified Student Front). Anyone aged 16 or older could weigh in on seven education-policy questions; it was a policy petition/referendum, not a vote on real electoral candidates.
  • The European Parliament Ambassador School Programme — run since 2017 by the European Parliament's liaison office in Hungary, now in 81 schools. It covers general EU civic education (information points, Europe Day, competitions), not simulated elections.
  • Local youth self-governments, such as a newly formed youth council in the town of Abony (2026) for residents aged 12-19 — a one-off local initiative, not a nationwide project tied to real elections.

Scale

Since we found no Hungarian equivalent of Student Elections, there are no participation figures (schools, students, regions) to report. For context: according to the source cited above, this kind of pre-election "mock vote" for secondary students is held in countries such as the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Poland, and Finland — outside Hungary and outside the V4 region that includes Slovakia.

Links

Because no direct equivalent exists in Hungary, we cannot list an "official" website or social media account for such a project. Below are sources and the related (but not equivalent) initiatives mentioned above: