Subscribe to our social channels to get the latest news about Hungary!
Migrant quota referendum – Parties, NGOs continue campaigns
Change language:
Budapest (MTI) – Hungary’s political parties continued their campaigns for the Oct. 2 migrant quota referendum on Saturday with three civil groups joining the fray for the “no” camp that rejects the European Union redistribution scheme.
Ruling Fidesz once again called on the left-wing parties to clarify their position on the European Union’s planned quota scheme.
Zoltán Rozgonyi, the party’s group leader in Budapest’s 14th district local council, said it was “outrageous” that the Dialogue for Hungary party’s Gergely Karácsony, the district’s mayor, had put out posters campaigning for a boycott of the referendum.
Rozgonyi told a press conference that the Fidesz group earlier attempted to pass a declaration in the council urging voters to participate in the referendum, but it was blocked by the left-wing representatives. He said this demonstrated that neither the mayor nor the left wing were willing to adopt a position on migrant quotas. Nor do they consider it important for the citizens of the 14th district to express their opinion on this matter, he said, adding that the left wing would rather leave the decision on migrant quotas up to the EU. “This is unacceptable from self-declared democratic politicians,” he said.
Rozgonyi reiterated his party’s stance that the referendum was about the future and security of Hungarian families, adding that it was only Hungarians who could decide whom they want to live together with.
The leftist opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) said that the referendum had now “truly” become devoid of purpose, arguing that EU leaders had agreed at the Bratislava summit on Friday “to strengthen joint border protection efforts and that there will not be any mandatory refugee quotas in the future”.
“Now there is really nothing to hold a referendum about. We already knew that [Prime Minister Viktor] Orbán’s pretend referendum is about his own political interests and not the refugee crisis,” MEP Csaba Molnár said. He called on the prime minister to call off the referendum so that Hungary can “save several billions of forints and avoid two weeks of hate-mongering”.
As freedom of movement is the mainstay of the European Union together with mass immigration to keep wages down I cannot see the EU placing any controls whatsoever on freedom of movement nor erection of fencing to keep people out. Note, there are some 250,000 economic migrants waiting to cross over from Libya according to newspaper reports. I believe there never will be any form of barriers placed on migration by the EU.