Referendum – Orbán: Popular vote only way to hand Hungarians power over migration

Budapest, October 3 (MTI) – Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told lawmakers ahead of business in parliament on Monday that Sunday’s referendum had been the only “honest way” to give Hungarians the power to decide with whom they wanted to live in the country.

Assessing Sunday’s referendum result, Orbán said the 2014 general election had taken place before the migration crisis emerged, so no political party had been able to “say a thing” on the subject. The opinion of the Hungarian people could not be divined from the result of the 2014 parliamentary election, which is why a referendum was necessary, he said.

Orbán said the “no” camp had won a historic, landslide victory “for Hungary”. He said 3.3 million people had rejected European Union migrant quotas, more than the 3,050,000 who decided on Hungary joining the European Union.

“From now on, we will be representing the will of 3.3 million people in Brussels,” Orbán told lawmakers.

He said this result was 1 million votes more support than the Fidesz-Christian Democratic alliance had won in the general election in 2014. “Since 1990, no political party has ever received this level of support,” he said. The will of this many people cannot be ignored, he added.