What the international press writes about the outcome of the referendum
Several illustrious media of the international press expressed their opinions on the result of the Hungarian referendum on migrant quotas. Most articles emphasized Viktor Orbán’s failure and some even reported on the events among the leading articles. Index.hu collected some of them.
Guardian: Hungary’s refugee referendum not valid after voters stay away – “Orbán himself put a positive spin on the low turnout. He argued that while “a valid [referendum] is always better than an invalid [referendum]” the extremely high proportion of no-voters still gave him a mandate to go to Brussels next week “to ensure that we should not be forced to accept people we don’t want to live with in Hungary.”
BBC: Hungary PM claims EU migrant quota referendum victory – “Mr Orbán urged EU decision makers to take note of the result and said he would change Hungary’s constitution to make the decision binding.”
Telegraph: Hungary referendum: 98 per cent of voters say ‘no’ to EU migrant quotas – “Hungary has voted emphatically against accepting EU migrant quotas, exit polls suggest, in a cry of defiance against Brussels that is likely to cement the country’s status as the leader of a “counter-revolution” against the bloc’s central powers.”
CNN: Hungary voters reject EU migrant-resettlement plan, but low turnout invalidates results – “This is a piece of international PR,” said John Dalhuisen, the Europe director for Amnesty International. “This is international marketing. He’s selling himself as the ideologue of a radically different migration policy. You’d characterize (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel as being ‘let them come’ — he’s saying the solution to the refugee crisis, to the migration issues in Europe, is ‘let no one come.'”
Franfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Ungarn verweigern Abstimmung über Flüchtlingsquoten – Orbán’s invalid referendum on migrant quotas is a failure according to FAZ online. The Hungarian government started an unexampled campaign to mobilise voters, in which they connected the topic with criminalism and terrorism. From this point of view, the invalidity of the referendum means a sensitive loss for Orbán.
Spiegel: Orbán scheitert mit Referendum über Flüchtlingsquote – Hungary’s much debated referendum on migrant quotas ended up being invalid. The referendum was initialised by the right wing-conservative government. The long anti-strangers campaign and the assaults against the leaders of EU and Germany predestined the definite win of the referendum.
Le Monde: The referendum on migrant quotas ended with the win of “no”-s, but it turned out to be invalid because Viktor Orbán didn’t manage to mobilise enough people. Despite this, Orbán talked about “a great success”, while Jobbik asked him to resign.
Le Figaro: The referendum is invalid despite the win of “no”-s. 99,2% were against the quotas, but only 39,8% of the entitled voted, which makes the result invalid. However Viktor Orbán only paid respect to the first number. From an internal political view they believe that the weight of “no”-s could help Orbán along the way to the 2018 elections.
Le Point: The referendum on migrant quotas failed due to the non-appearances.
La Libre Belgique: The Belgian paper believes that despite the referendum being invalid Orbán is going to start a counter-attack.
Le Soir: There wasn’t enough voters to make the referendum valid but the majority of attendants were against the solutions suggested by EU.
Tanjug: The Serbian news agency reported on the Hungarian referendum among the leading articles. They dealt with Orbán’s evaluation separately and highlighted the change of the constitution.
RTS: The Serbian civil service radio and television reported on Hungary in a quite illustrious spot and emphasized the invalidity of the referendum.
Photo: MTI
Copy editor: bm
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.
Orbán noted that legally the referendum result is not binding on parliament but lawmakers could choose to enforce it. He said he would propose changing Hungary’s fundamental law “in the spirit of the referendum results”.
Orbán said many Europeans do not support the quota regime plan, so Hungary does have room to “win battles in Brussels” over this. Fully 92 percent decided that Budapest should have a say in these matters, and this right must be defended, he said, arguing that discounting spoiled ballot papers, 98 percent of participants voted “no” to binding quotas.
Since 2010, Hungary has become a “model state”, Orbán said. It has stuck to all its financial obligations mandated by Brussels as well as its international obligations, and its fundamental law adopted Europe’s body of laws. “Hungary has every right to make its voice heard in the EU on crucial issues,” Orbán said, adding that he expects a “rocky ride” as well as “EU attacks on Hungary” and even possible “revenge or blackmail”.
Photo: MTI
Referendum – Analysts: Opposition deceiving themselves by equating result with own support
Budapest (MTI) – The opposition parties are deceiving themselves if they regard those who did not turn out to vote in Sunday’s referendum on migrant quotas as their own supporters, a Nézőpont Institute analyst told public television M1.
Sámuel Mráz Ágoston said around a million more voters now voted “no” than for the ruling Fidesz-Christian-Democrat parties in the 2014 general election. This shows that people saw the referendum as a national cause and did not vote according to party preference, he insisted.
He called the opposition’s campaign urging voters to boycott the referendum as “dangerous”, arguing there were now no guarantees that efforts to get out the vote in the 2018 general election would be successful.
Tamas Lánczi, analyst for the Századvég Foundation, predicted that the “no” camp would get around 3.1 to 3.2 million votes, which he said was similar to Fidesz’s share in the 2008 referendum, when the party was at the height of its popularity as an opposition party. Now, halfway through their second term in government, when a ruling party is typically at its lowest ebb in the polls, Fidesz achieved a similar result, he said.
Lánczi said that the opposition parties were “deceiving themselves” by “pretending” that those who had sat out the referendum were their voters. He said the opposition was “building a wall” between itself and voters by ignoring the votes of more than 3 million people.
Attila Juhász of Political Capital called the referendum outcome a “failure”, since, given its lack of validity, it would not suffice to put pressure on Brussels. He said that the most expensive Hungarian political campaign of all time had not been enough to produce a valid referendum. Nevertheless, Fidesz would only suffer a “Pyrrhic, momentary, defeat”.
He said the referendum had turned out to be invalid in vain, since the overwhelming proportion of “no” votes gave the government the opportunity to “evaluate the failure as a victory”. He cautioned that the opposition parties did not appear to be strong enough to override such an assessment by the government.
The failure, rather, will be registered at an international level, Juhász said. Even a valid referendum would not have overridden decisions accepted in the EU, he said. But an invalid result would not be good for putting political pressure on Brussels, he said, adding, however, that none of this means that the acceptance of binding migrant quotas is a done deal in the EU.
Photo: MTI
Referendum – Orbán hails referendum result as ‘outstanding’
Budapest (MTI) – Prime Minister Viktor Orbán hailed the result of Hungary’s referendum on European migrant quotas as “outstanding”, arguing that the number of votes cast for the “no” side had exceeded the number of votes cast in favour of Hungary joining the EU in 2004.
In the referendum on Hungary’s European Union membership, 3,056,000 people voted to join the bloc and now 3,204,000 people voted “no”, discounting the votes cast by ethnic Hungarians living beyond the border, Orbán said.
He said that turnout in the referendum was 15 percent higher than in the last European parliamentary election in 2014. Commenting on the result, the prime minister said: “The weapon will be strong enough in Brussels.”
“We can be proud that we Hungarians were the first and so far only member state in the EU to voice our opinion on the issue of migration. This was the right thing to do. It was the honourable thing to do,” Orbán said.
The question of “whom we will live with; what will become of our culture and our way of life” would be one of the most important in the coming years, the prime minister said.
The question now is how the EU responds to the modern-day “mass migration wave”. The EU’s proposal has been to let migrants in and distribute them among member states, he said, stressing that in the referendum Hungarians had made clear that only they can decide with whom they live.
“Brussels or Budapest. That was the question. And we decided that the right to decide lies solely with Budapest,” he said.
Orbán said the referendum was the first important step of a “long journey” ahead. Hungary would have to fight many tough battles along the way, he added.
Photos: MTI
Referendum – Officially invalid even though overwhelming majority of Hungarians rejects migrant quotas
Budapest (MTI) – A massive majority of Hungarians rejected the European Union’s binding migrant quotas in Sunday’s referendum, but as polls closed turnout was below the 50 percent-plus-one vote required for the vote to be valid.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, announcing that he would submit a constitutional amendment proposal to parliament with a view to cementing “the will of the people in the constitution”, hailed the result of Hungary’s referendum on European migrant quotas as “outstanding”, noting that the number of votes cast for the “no” side had exceeded the number of votes cast in favour of Hungary joining the EU in 2004.
In the referendum on Hungary’s EU membership, 3,056,000 people voted to join the bloc and now 3,204,000 people voted “no”, discounting the votes cast by ethnic Hungarians living beyond the border, Orbán said, adding that turnout was 15 percent higher than in the last European parliamentary election in 2014.
Orbán said the referendum outcome must be enforced in Brussels. “The question is simple,” Orbán said. “Can Brussels, the democratic community of European states, force its will onto a member state in which more than 90 percent of participating voters reject that will?” He vowed to do everything to make sure that this would not happen.
“The weapon will be strong enough in Brussels,” he said, referring to the outcome.
The National Election Office (NVI) officially declared Hungary’s migrant quota referendum invalid, as the number of valid votes cast did not reach the 50-percent-plus-one threshold. NVI chief Ilona Pálffy said after 98.82 percent of the votes had been counted that the number of valid votes was 3.2 million.
The referendum would have required just over 4.1 million valid votes for it to have been declared valid.
Ruling Fidesz officials declared a “sweeping victory”. Gergely Gulyás, deputy leader of ruling Fidesz, said that any legal decision in light of the referendum outcome would rest with parliament, but “politically the will of voters” would have to be followed.
The Hungarian government and parliament has a duty to take action based on the result of the country’s migrant quota referendum, the government spokesman said. Zoltán Kovács said voters had made their opinion on migrant quotas clear. “The share of those rejecting Brussels’ [migration] policy is significant.”
Kovács said the referendum would also place responsibilities on Brussels. He insisted that the European Commission could not act against the results of a referendum.
In the referendum voters were asked: “Do you want to allow the European Union to mandate the resettlement of non-Hungarian citizens to Hungary without the approval of the National Assembly?”
Opposition Jobbik leader Gábor Vona described preliminary turnout data in Hungary’s migrant quota referendum indicating that it would be invalid as a “personal failure” for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
“This game is played for goals, and despite the advantage enjoyed by the prime minister and [ruling] Fidesz, Orbán scored a huge own goal,” Vona told a press conference.
Any move government takes based on an invalid referendum on European Union migrant quotas would be “unconstitutional”, Gyula Molnár, leader of the opposition Socialist Party, said after polls closed.
Ferenc Gyurcsány, leader of the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK), commenting on preliminary voter turnout data, said: “We won”. He said “Orbán’s referendum” was invalid, giving the “democratic opposition” an “undisputed” victory over the government and ruling Fidesz. “Orbán took a gamble with the migrant quota referendum but suffered a major loss,” the former prime minister said.
An invalid referendum on European migrant quotas will weaken the government’s position in its talks abroad on migration, the green opposition LMP said. “Not only will the government come out weaker from the situation that it created, but so will the country,” co-leader Bernadett Szél said.
Leaders of the opposition Dialogue for Hungary (PM) party told supporters gathered in front of Parliament on Sunday that “Orbán’s politics of hate” had failed. Citing low turnout, Tímea Szabó, the party’s co-leader, insisted that “Viktor Orbán’s inhumane and heartless government will fall”.
A Nézőpont Institute analyst told public television M1 that the opposition parties were deceiving themselves if they regarded those who did not turn out to vote in Sunday’s referendum on migrant quotas as their own supporters.
Samuel Mraz Agoston said around a million more voters now voted “no” than for the ruling Fidesz-Christian-Democrat parties in the 2014 general election. This shows that people saw the referendum as a national cause and did not vote according to party preference, he insisted.
He called the opposition’s campaign urging voters to boycott the referendum as “dangerous”, arguing there were now no guarantees that efforts to get out the vote in the 2018 general election would be successful.
Tamas Lánczi, analyst for the Századvég Foundation, predicted that the “no” camp would get around 3.1 to 3.2 million votes, which he said was similar to Fidesz’s share in the 2008 referendum, when the party was at the height of its popularity as an opposition party. Now, halfway through their second term in government, when a ruling party is typically at its lowest ebb in the polls, Fidesz achieved a similar result, he said.
Lánczi said that the opposition parties were “deceiving themselves” by “pretending” that those who had sat out the referendum were their voters. He said the opposition was “building a wall” between itself and voters by ignoring the votes of more than 3 million people.
Photos: MTI
Referendum invalid, election office rules
Budapest (MTI) – The National Election Office (NVI) officially declared Hungary’s migrant quota referendum invalid, as the number of valid votes cast did not reach the 50-percent-plus-one threshold.
NVI chief Ilona Pálffy said after 98.82 percent of the votes had been counted that the number of valid votes was 3.2 million.
The referendum would have required just over 4.1 million valid votes for it to have been declared valid.
Photo: MTI
Referendum – Orbán expects ‘no’ votes to win referendum
Budapest, October 2 (MTI) – Prime Minister Viktor Orbán cast his vote in Hungary’s referendum on European Union migrant quotas on Sunday morning, and told reporters afterwards that it was crucial that ‘no’ votes should outnumber the ‘yes’ ones.
Orbán said he expected that outcome, and added that a victory of ‘no’ votes would provide “sufficient legitimacy” to parliament and the government, even if the referendum turns out to be invalid.
“A valid referendum is better than an invalid one, but there will be legislative consequences anyway, because we have pledged… to enact parliament’s exclusive authority to determine whom the Hungarians wish to live together with”, the prime minister said. “We will do that whether the referendum is valid or not”, he added. “There is just one condition: one more ‘no’ is needed than ‘yes’ votes”, he said.
Orbán did not exclude the possibility of a constitutional amendment, but suggested that this option would be of secondary importance to talks in Brussels aimed to ensure that “Hungary should not be obliged to accommodate people we do not want” and that the right of decision on such issues should be left with the country. “If the EU is a democratic community, it must accept the opinion of Hungarians,” he added.
Orbán said he was proud that Hungary is the first country to have a referendum on the subject and added he would welcome to see other countries follow suit.
The prime minister also proposed talks between the parliamentary parties concerning “the legal format of enacting the will of the people”.
Answering a question whether he would offer his resignation should ‘yes’ votes win, Orbán said “yes”.
Photos: MTI
Referendum – Results expected to arrive between 8pm and 10pm
Budapest (MTI) – The National Election Committee (NVI) expects the results of the referendum to come through from most polling stations between 8pm and 10pm on Sunday, revealing how many Hungarian voters participated in the vote, head of the NVI Ilona Pálffy said on Saturday.
She said 8,272,625 citizens are registered, so 4,136,313 people must cast a valid vote for the referendum to be valid, adding that more than half of those casting valid votes must give the same answer to the question for the referendum to be successful.
The number of voters with a Hungarian residence is 7,997,998, 11,231 of whom will vote at one of Hungary’s embassies abroad while 80,005 are registered to vote at a location in Hungary other than their residence. Many people not resident in Budapest are registered to vote in the capital, which could result in queues, especially in the 11th district, Pálffy said.
A further 274,627 voters are ethnic Hungarians not resident in Hungary, and they can cast their vote by mail.
The biggest polling stations abroad are in London, Munich, Miercurea Ciuc (Romania) and Brussels.
Twenty-three international observers have been registered for the Sunday referendum, according to data on the NVI’s website.
Twelve observers are delegated by the embassies of Mongolia, Denmark, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Netherlands and a further eleven by Romania’s, South Korea’s and Latvia’s national election committees.
About 121,000 postal votes have already been cast, according to the calculations of the National Election Committee, Ilona Pálffy said on Saturday, of which more than 88,000 have already arrived at the NVI.
Voting has already started at Hungarian embassies on the American continent, with polling stations first opening in Brazil, Chile and Argentina, then in Canada, Washington and New York. Cuba is followed an hour later by Chicago, Mexico City and Quito, capital of Ecuador. Voting on the American continent will close at 4am CET in Los Angeles.
Ilona Pálffy said there is no campaign silence in Hungary on Sunday, apart from within a distance of 150m from polling stations, but no election rallies are allowed.
She said accusations of election fraud were “outrageous and unacceptable”, and she rejected the allegations on behalf of the about 50,000 members of ballot counting committees. She said there are 10,331 such committees operating at the referendum, all with at least five members. All parliamentary parties had the opportunity to delegate members to each of the committees. Fidesz delegated 13,880 members, Jobbik 175, KDNP 279, LMP 41, and MSZP 4,012 members to ballot-counting committees.
In the referendum Hungarian citizens 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 the National Assembly?”
Photo: MTI
Kósa: No way for Brussels to “dodge” referendum result
Budapest (MTI) – European Union decision makers will have no opportunity to “dodge” the outcome of Hungary’s upcoming migrant quota referendum, the parliamentary group leader of ruling Fidesz said on Friday.
Addressing a board meeting of Fidesz’s youth arm Fidelitas, Lajos Kósa said he expected a high turnout at the polls on Sunday, but suggested that even if the referendum is invalid, “a vast majority of ‘no’ votes will ensure authorisation for the government to propose migration legislation”.
Kósa insisted that the European Commission will not be in a position to ignore the referendum “even if its validity is challenged”.
As to legal consequences in Hungary, Kósa said that “if ‘no’ votes win, parliament will certainly have a legislative task, whether it is a constitutional or law amendment, a parliamentary decree, or a mandate to the government, which will automatically impact European law”.
Answering a question Kósa said the government would step down should the ‘yes’ votes win.
Photo: MTI
Trócsányi: Hungary referendum ‘alarm bell’ for EU
Rome (MTI) – Hungary’s upcoming quota referendum will sound as an “alarm bell” to the European Union, which suffers from a “lack of democracy”, Justice Minister Laszló Trócsányi said in an interview published online by Italian daily La Repubblica on Friday.
In his interview, Trócsányi said that migration calls for a “broad, open and democratic” discussion involving the people of the EU, but “too many politicians are wary” of such debates, to the benefit of extremists.
The minister called it unacceptable that on migration issues “external authorities” which “nobody elected” should pass decisions rather than the peoples of each member country. The EU, he argued, must not change the composition of the population, culture or traditions of member states.
Answering a question, Trócsányi said that Hungary is proud of its EU membership and is “aware of its benefits” but refuses “to give up sovereignty over its national identity”.
Concerning Sunday’s referendum, the minister said that if just 3.8 million people turn up at the polls – and the vote is rendered invalid by low turnout – “its message will still be valid in a political sense”.
The full interview can be read in Italian at http://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2016/09/30/news/intervista_la_szlo_tro_csa_nyi-148841883/?ref=HREC1-16
Orbán: Hungary’s future at stake in ‘irreversible’ migration vote – TV2 interview
Budapest (MTI) – Commenting on the Oct. 2 referendum on European Union migrant quotas, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Thursday in an interview: “We can’t afford to make a mistake on migration, because not only would our Hungary change but the Hungary of our children and our grandchildren would be very different…”
“There are some decisions that can be changed, but on the issue of migration this is something that, if we make a mistake, then we’ll never be able to alter it,” he told commercial broadcaster TV2. “This is what the endless internal disputes and tensions in western European countries are about,” Orbán added.
“People understand this situation, they know this is about the future of the country. Still, parties have different views, the left is generally pro-immigration and the right wants to keep the country as it is. Those who don’t take part in Sunday’s referendum leave the decision to those who do,” the prime minister said.
Orbán said that with the outcome of the referendum in hand, he would travel to Brussels next week to negotiate the quota regime. “The EU is a democratic community; if one nation is against a regulation, it cannot be forced upon it,” he said. “This is what I would like to enforce.”
Orbán said it was wrong that the EU had not made clear how people in trouble would be helped. “Several member states invited them to their country, but when they realised this would bring trouble, they had the idea to select the ones they wanted and to distribute the others. The most dangerous part of this is that there is no upper limit,” he added.
Hungary’s position, on the other hand, is that help should be taken to where it is really needed, Orbán said. Hungary also advocated border protection from the start as well as the standpoint that “it is we Hungarians who should decide with whom we want to live”.
“We don’t want public safety to deteriorate, we don’t want a terror threat or to change our way of life, our family ties, the way we think about women, the press or religious ideals,” he said.
Countries that have accepted migrants have scattered them around villages and cities, he said, adding that the same would happen in Hungary if migrants were forced upon it. The referendum is therefore not only a national affair but about the lives of every locality, the prime minister insisted.
Photo: MTI
Kúria rules government’s campaign letter to voters abroad unlawful
Budapest (MTI) – Campaign letters for the Oct. 2 referendum on European Union migrant quotas sent on behalf of the government to ethnic Hungarians abroad were unlawful, the Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, ruled on Thursday and called on the government to desist.
The Kúria said the letters violated the principles of equal opportunity and citizens’ entitlement to exercise their rights in a bona fide way. The ruling overturned a decision the National Election Committee made last Friday.
A private individual submitted a complaint to the election office objecting to the fact that the government had sent campaign letters to voters without a permanent address in Hungary. According to the complaint, the government was not authorised to contact people without a permanent address in Hungary because the government, as the initiator of the referendum, and parties with a parliamentary group are authorised to receive only addresses registered in election districts.
The Kúria ruled that the government is only authorised to use a database that is also available to other participants in the campaign and must not use one that it acquired in its capacity as the practitioner of public authority.
In reaction to the supreme court ruling, the government communications centre said in a statement that the cabinet had “observed all relevant laws” but added that the government would “respect the decision”.
They insisted that the “letters of information” had been sent to ethnic Hungarians, aiming to call their attention to the referendum “against forced resettlement” of migrants and to “risks around Brussels’ quota package”.
The statement added that “the chance to send letters was open to the opposition parties, too.” They chose not to use that opportunity, “therefore the principle of equal opportunities was not violated,” the statement said.
The opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) interpreted the ruling as proof that ruling Fidesz had “tried to garner votes through fraud” and called on the party and the government to drop those practices.
“Hungary’s laws mean nothing to the government if it comes to lending legitimacy to its corrupt power”, DK said in a statement.
Photo: MTI
Lázár: Brussels wants to ‘legalise illegal migration’
Budapest, September 29 (MTI) – The European Commission aims to “legalise illegal migration”, the government office chief said on Thursday.
Unlike Brussels, the Hungarian government wants to stop illegal migration, János Lázár said in his weekly news conference. Central European countries share the view that migration is not needed and that it is “inconceivable” that they would allow migrants to be settled in their countries, Lázár added.
He said Hungarian voters were not anti-European but rather had “a problem with Brussels”. It is hard for Hungarians to accept that the commission wants to take away Hungary’s right to determine who can or cannot live in the country. This is a right Hungary cannot relinquish, Lázár said, arguing that it is a matter of national sovereignty.
He reiterated the government’s position that the Oct. 2 migrant quota referendum is a national issue that stands above party politics. Lázár urged all Hungarian citizens to take part in the vote on Sunday. He insisted that a referendum was the strongest among democratic institutions and offered an opportunity for voters to express their opinion, this time on a matter “concerning their own lives”.
European plans to “automatically distribute migrants” is against the interests of Hungarians, Lázár said.
High turnout at the Oct. 2 referendum is important, he said. “It is important that people see eye to eye and cooperate over a fundamental cause,” Lázár said. The lack of such cooperation would “weaken Hungary in battles in Brussels,” he added.
Concerning reports that perpetrators of the Paris and Brussels terrorist attacks had stayed in Hungary undetected in 2015, Lázár said it had been impossible to control several hundred thousand people crossing the country who had refused to cooperate with the authorities. Sealing Hungary’s borders is a “sufficient guarantee for the full screening” of migrants and has reduced the risk of entry with false documents to a minimum, he said.
Referring to plans under which some 148,000 migrants earlier registered in Hungary would be returned to the country by Austria, Germany and Scandinavian states, Lázár reiterated the government’s position that Hungary would refuse to accommodate them. Those people entered the EU in Greece, Lázár said. He also criticised the Scandinavian countries as “the EU’s richest” planning to send migrants to “much poorer” Hungary.
Answering a question about Hungary’s solidarity with the rest of the EU, Lázár said “our solidarity lies in building the fence and ensuring daily control”. He added it would “unrealistic” to epect Hungary to make “material contributions by western standards”.
Photo: MTI
PM party to hold demonstration on referendum day despite election committee decision
Budapest, September 29 (MTI) – The opposition Dialogue for Hungary (PM) party will go ahead and hold a demonstration on Oct. 2, the day of the national referendum on EU migrant quotas, despite the National Election Committee’s (NVB) decision to ban the event, Tímea Szabó, the party’s co-leader, said on Thursday.
In its Wednesday decision, NVB stated that PM had breached the election procedures law by calling a political rally for the day of a national ballot.
The demonstration called for Sunday afternoon on the square in front of Parliament qualifies as a political rally, the committee said.
The complaint against the party’s planned event had been submitted by two people, including Gergely Gulyás, deputy leader of ruling Fidesz, who acted as a private individual in the case.
Addressing a press conference, Szabó insisted that PM would not hold a political rally but a demonstration to protest against the government’s “hate campaign, which holds the public in fear”. She called the NBV as a “lackey” of Fidesz rhat seeks to prevent the event with a “false legal argument”.
The PM party will appeal the decision in the Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, she said.
Meanwhile, the opposition Socialists have called a demonstration at the office building of the National Election Committee near Parliament for Saturday morning to protest against Fidesz’s “direct control” over the body. The party has invited every democratic opposition party that agree with the Socialists to join.
The Socialists said earlier that they cancelled their “Family Day” gathering planned for Oct. 2 in central Budapest so that Fidesz should not be in a position to blame them for a possible failure of the migrant quota referendum.
DK complains to OLAF about referendum campaign leaflets
Budapest, September 28 (MTI) – The opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) has contacted the European Commission’s anti-fraud office (OLAF) to complain about leaflets “blackmailing” local residents to vote ‘no’ at the referendum on European Union migrant quotas by suggesting that otherwise the government would take away EU funding from their locality.
This “threat” came from the mayor of Győrújfalu, in northwest Hungary, László Varjú, DK’s deputy leader told a press conference on Wednesday, citing a report by online news portal 444.hu.
“It is hard to know whether this reflects desperation or political motives but it is shocking that the government wants to distribute EU development funds on the basis of loyalty to [ruling] Fidesz,” Varjú said. DK will investigate every “cash handout by Fidesz” in Hungary, he said, calling on voters “not to give in to Fidesz blackmail and threats” and stay away from the “sham referendum”.
Fidesz said in response that DK was promoting Brussels’ interests, “which is no surprise considering that the anti-Hungarian and anti-referendum campaign of Ferenc Gyurcsány’s party was financed by Brussels”. Their purpose is to thwart the Hungarian referendum and enable the “forced settlement” of migrants, the statement said. “DK has even admitted” that its posters are financed from their MEPs’ expense allocations and they show the logo of the European Parliament’s group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats on the posters, the statement said.
Photo: MTI
Kövér: More at stake in Oct. 2 referendum than in any general election
Budapest (MTI) – The national referendum Hungary will have on EU migrant quotas on Oct.2 will have higher stakes than a regular parliamentary election, House Speaker László Kövér told commercial Info Radio on Tuesday.
The migrant redistribution scheme is “not dead” either from a political or a legal perspective, with procedures aimed at putting the quotas into place already under way, Kövér told the radio.
“Why politicians in Brussels have recently become quieter and have made ambiguous statements about the scheme is probably because they are rather worried about the possible outcome of the Hungarian referendum,” he said.
Whether or not the ballot will entail legislative measures will depend on its outcome, said Kövér, adding that such measures could either include amending laws or even the country’s constitution.
If the ballot turns out to be valid it will oblige the government in place to act in line with the public’s will over the course of at least three years after the vote, he said.
Should the referendum fail to pass, then the actual government in place will be obliged “by the will of the public” to fend off “any attempts by Brussels” aiming to transform Hungary culturally or ethnically, as it has been successfully done in several western European countries so far, the house speaker said.
Concerning public interest, Kövér said that attendance at campaign events suggests increased interest, and not solely among the core supporters of ruling Fidesz.
“There is concern for a reason over the future of Europe, and of Hungary, and the government has perceived a great degree of consent among people in this respect,” Kövér told the programme.
He said that the “greatest policy change” in countries affected most by the migrant crisis has been witnessed in Austria, whereas there has been no change in the migration policies of either Italy or Greece over the past year. As far as Germany is concerned, there has been a change in the German people’s mood but not in the policy of the government, Kövér said.
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?”
Under Hungary’s referendum law, a referendum is valid if voter turnout is over 50 percent. It is considered successful if more than half of the valid votes are cast for the same answer.
Photo: MTI
Socialists cry foul over Fidesz turning to election committee over opposition demonstration plan
Budapest (MTI) – The opposition Socialist Party has complained about the ruling Fidesz party’s decision to turn to the National Election Committee in a bid to stop opposition parties from holding a demonstration on October 2, the day of the referendum on migrant quotas.
In a statement on Monday, the Socialists, referring to a now-defunct law on shopping restrictions, said the move was further proof that Fidesz wanted to dictate how people should spend their Sunday.
Fidesz has asked the election committee to adjudicate on the legality of holding a demonstration on the day of the popular vote.
The Socialists said in their statement: “So far Fidesz has spent 11.3 billion forints on its quota campaign, four times the sum spent on the general election … For months it has been illegally using taxpayer money to spread hate propaganda, and evidence has been captured on video showing public workers taking down opposition billboards and those of civil organisations.”
“Why did Hungarians become such Orbáns?”
According to mno.hu, two German newspapers published articles about Hungary in connection with the October 2 referendum on migrant quotas. The two papers, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS) and the Bild am Sonntag, are quite popular opinion leaders in Germany.
In FAS’s They already know the answer article the author, Stephan Löwenstein emphasized: Hungary is having a referendum on migrant quotas but the “result is certain” so the question of the reason behind the referendum arises.
In the report, where he asked the opinions of analysts and dwellers of Harsány and Lyukóvölgy, government spokesperson Zoltán Kovács said that according to the predictions of the government, the migrational pressure will strengthen from Syria and Turkey, therefore the referendum will help the government’s work politically and legally.
The author noted that there’s a “cliff, which could wreck the proposition” and this is the participation rate, which is currently predicted to be somewhat under the level needed for validity. However, analysts reckon a “final spurt” in the “Fidesz campaign”.
We seclude ourselves
The German Bild am Sonntag, a countrywide Sunday paper of the biggest circulation, published a compilation titled Why did Hungarians become such Orbáns? in their Travel around Europe report series. The author highlighted that the article presents a country, which “secludes itself from strangers”.
He added: when Germans think about Hungarians, the first thing that comes to their minds is the 1989 border opening and that the German constitution is the base of the “operative Hungarian constitution since 1989”. But they also remember last year’s photos of refugees at Keleti railway station and that Hungarians protect the Serbian and Croatian border with barbed-wire fences to keep refugees away.
The author asked – among others – a 22-year-old student who thinks that the referendum is senseless. This is followed by the statement that this student is “an exception”.
He also explains that the transparency of businesses is not evident and that the government previously had corruption scandals, “but Hungarians still voted for Orbán”. He came up with an interesting metaphor: the Rubik’s cube can be solved in 20 steps but in his opinion Hungary will need a few more steps to solve the issues that pose a problem for the country.
Photo: MTI
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