Government: Hungary referendum about national sovereignty

London, September 12 (MTI) – Hungary’s migrant quota referendum is a question of national sovereignty, government spokesman Zoltán Kovács said at a roundtable for the press at the Hungarian embassy in London on Monday.

Voters in the Oct. 2 referendum will indicate whether “others should make decisions for us in causes we have not delegated to European or other institutions”, Kovács said.

“It is unimaginable that the Hungarian parliament would turn a blind eye to the outcome of the referendum — and this possibility doesn’t even arise. And it is inconceivable that Brussels would not have to deal with the expression of the Hungarian people.”

The spokesman insisted that the referendum would have both legal and political consequences.

The referendum is not about Hungary’s EU membership “in any way” but about Europe itself; it is about “what kind of European Union we want”, Kovács said. The Hungarian government has a vision of a strong EU, which is manifested through strong member states, he added.

Kovács said there are natural limits and boundaries to integration, and there are regions in which integration processes cannot be forced, regions in which it is clear that this would cause more damage than the accompanying dividends would be worth.

The Visegrad Group, in cooperation with the countries along the western Balkan route, have attained results in putting a brake on migration quicker and more efficiently than “any kind of elevated and pie-in-the-sky European concept,” he added.

Concerning the Hungarian economy, Kovács said that while the rate of unemployment had been as high as 11.4 percent in 2010, it has now been reduced below 5 percent. The government’s goal of one million new jobs, set at that time, is “now within reach”, Kovács said, adding that that the country now has 670,000 more jobs than six years ago.

Source: MTI