Populist leaders often attempt to shift focus away from the fact that their domestic governance is not successful. This is exactly what Robert Fico and Viktor Orbán have been doing, as their countries have slipped to the bottom of the European Union. This is partly why they have talked so much about Ukraine in recent years.

Let us take a look at the most relevant indicator. Disposable income means the amount of money citizens can actually spend. Median is a better measure than average, as averages hide the fact that a few people might have very high incomes while many people might have low incomes. Median highlights the person at the middle of the distribution ranging from lowest to highest - it is therefore more typical than the average. Finally, PPS (Purchasing Power Standard) means that these incomes have already been adjusted to local price levels, that is, the ranking already takes into account the fact that the same amount of money might buy different amounts of goods in different countries at different price levels.

Having considered all of these methodological issues, let us take a look. It can clearly be seen that Hungary is at the very end of the ranking, while Slovakia is just above.