Referendum – Vote against government by staying at home, say leftist parties

Budapest, September 18 (MTI) – By boycotting the Oct. 2 referendum on European Union migrant quotas, voters will be voting against the government, the opposition Együtt, Dialogue for Hungary and non-parliamentary MoMa parties said on Sunday.

Viktor Szigetvári, Együtt’s leader, told a news conference that the three parties had joined together to campaign against the government-backed referendum.

Because at least 50 percent of the electorate must turn out to vote in order for the outcome to be legally valid, the parties say the best way of ensuring defeat of the government’s initiative is not to vote at all.

Szigetvári insisted that the ruling Fidesz party and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán were “lying” about Europe, asylum seekers and how to create security and cooperation in Hungary and on the continent, while “stealing our money without any inhibition.”

Bence Tordai, Dialogue’s spokesman, said that government referendum campaign in favour of a “no” vote on migrant quotas was “a tangle of lies”. He accused Orbán of misrepresenting the closing statement of the EU informal summit in Bratislava.