Referendum – Three small parties launch joint campaign for boycott

Budapest, September 1 (MTI) – The opposition Együtt, Dialogue for Hungary and MoMa parties are launching a joint billboard campaign calling on Hungarians to boycott the October 2 referendum on European Union migrant quotas.

The party leaders presented the posters at a joint press conference on Thursday. The posters show a seated man and a woman from behind, as they show their middle finger. The posters also show the words “This is the answer to a dumb question” and “Those who stay at home vote for Europe”, next to the party logos and “Referendum 2016” crossed through with a red line.

The parties plan to spend 10-20 million forints (EUR 32,000-64,000) on the campaign which will pay for 300-400 posters to be put up in public spaces.

In the referendum Hungarians will be asked: “Do you want to allow the European Union to mandate the resettlement of non-Hungarian citizens to Hungary without the approval of parliament?”

MoMa leader Lajos Bokros insisted the referendum question was “vile and evil” and added the government propaganda was built on lies. The referendum itself is harming Hungary’s reputation, he said.

The EU has not proposed settling illegal migrants but rather it expects member states to fulfil their contracted obligations and temporarily accept refugees, he added.

Egyutt leader Viktor Szigetvári said his party is “disgusted by what Viktor Orbán is doing to this country.” He accused the prime minister of lying about Europe in an anti-European campaign and “pushing us towards the East”.

PM co-leader Gergely Karácsony called the referendum “one of the biggest political swindles of the past decades” aimed purely at instilling fear in the public. And fear diverts attention from problems in health care, education and the economy and “from the massive theft of public funds”.

In response, the ruling Fidesz party said left-wing parties must give a clear answer to the question of whether or not they support “Brussels’ settlement plans”.

“Both the message and the picture with its obscene gesture deeply offend those Hungarians who feel responsible for the fate of their country,” the party said in a statement. “The referendum is a national issue which stands above politics,” it added.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI