Hungarians are also people of solidarity if their lives are made easier

We can be happy about it or regret that it is not the case at other times, but it is a fact that people pay more attention to each other around Christmas, essentially regardless of where they live. There may be many signs of this, but in the Munipolis network all this can be measured specifically, so interesting statistics can be made from it – Erik Czinger, the Hungarian head of Munipolis, which operates the smart communication networks of municipalities, described the experiences of the holiday season.

In principle, the company could also announce the title of the most supportive settlement in Hungary or the Czech Republic based on message traffic, but this is not possible due to data management considerations, and moreover, it would not be fair. The ratio of people in need and users also varies from town to town, while there are still countless towns – in the Czech Republic, roughly half of the municipalities, and in our country, since the system was launched later, much more – where the solution has not been introduced at all.

However, the company has observed, and it is no secret, that at this time, from the beginning of December to the beginning of January, the number of public notifications almost doubles compared to other months. The increase is almost entirely due to some social issue. In cities, people are more sensitive to homelessness at this time, but many more people draw the attention of the municipalities to their lonely or difficult neighbors, or to the destitute in their neighborhood. They say it when it is cold, but the smoke disappears from the neighbor’s chimney if they know that a family is in need at Christmas. Many people also make donations. Food, cookies, unused heating equipment, even physical help, such as splitting firewood, is offered to almost anyone who accepts it. Local governments and social care institutions also communicate more actively at this time, so the number of messages from the other direction, from the institutions to the population, also increases, but to a much lesser extent – the leader pointed out the phenomenon.