European elites are taking positions that fly in the face of the public majority’s opinions on fundamental matters of European policy, the minister in charge of European Union affairs said on Saturday, citing research. Speaking at the Tranzit Festival in Tihany, at Lake Balaton, János Bóka said that EU decision makers were using campaigns to “ostracise” those who took a different stand than theirs, even if that position was shared by the public majority. He added that “deficits in the democratic project” of the EU were not so apparent as long as public opinion was aligned with that of the decision-makers, but the situation had “fundamentally changed”, pointing to differences over the issue of migration. Gábor Fűrész, the head of think-tank Századvég, said that research showed that all EU member states, with the exception of Portugal, viewed the migration situation in a negative light, with most opposed to the EU’s Migration Pact.