Hungary holds referendum on European Union migrant plan
- by Leah Brady
- in Worldwide
- — Oct 3, 2016
Hungarians voted Sunday on the EU's troubled refugee quota plan, in a referendum aimed at boosting Prime Minister Viktor Orban's self-styled campaign to defend Europe against the "threat of mass migration".
The Democratic Party leader also stated that being a "partner of this European club" was the best thing that could have happened to Hungary but expressed his concern that today's migrant quota referendum could be a step towards Hungary leaving the EU. But they indicate turnout might not necessarily top the 50% required for the poll to be valid. But turnout stood at 43.9 percent, the National Election Office said. Based on that figure, analysts at the Political Capital research and consultancy institute projected a final turnout of not higher than 46 percent.
In a Sunday evening television address, Orban said the European Union can not force migration policies on Hungary and vowed to fight any efforts to do so.
Though the European Union quotas would see only 1,924 migrants added to Hungary's population of 9.8m, the vote is seen as highly symbolic of a tidal wave of anti-refugee sentiment sweeping across Europe.
Erzsebet Virag, voting near Budapest's eastern railway station, where a year ago thousands of migrants camped outside waiting to get on trains toward Vienna, said: "I voted (No) because there are a lot of poor people in our country too and if more poor people come in we will be even poorer and have to work even more".
Just 27% of Budapest voters have voted so far, which is considerably lower than the national average and lower than any county in Hungary.
More than 100,000 migrants remain holed up in Greece and Italy, the countries where most asylum seekers begin their European trek.
Please Help on Indus Water Treaty
Pakistan's meeting with World Bank took place amid reports that India could revoke the 56-year-old Indus Water Treaty. Shah expressed fears that India may build more dams on the Jhelum and Chenab rivers if the treaty is abrogated.
Orban, who wants individual European Union member nations to have more power in the bloc's decision-making process, said he hopes anti-quota referendums would be held in other countries. Under the original plan, 1,294 asylum seekers would be moved to Hungary.
Authorities said a large number of votes were invalid and counted as no shows.
One protester, Zsuzsa Berkesi, said they demonstrated so they "would be less ashamed of ourselves on Sunday night".
Opposition parties and rights groups had called on Hungarians to boycott the referendum or spoil their ballot.
Last year, it built a long razor wire fence along the entire length of its borders with Serbia and Croatia and announced plans in August to build an even stronger fence and employ 3,000 new "border hunters" to tight control. We must realise that immigration is a permanent phenomenon.
Even as Hungarians voted, neighbouring Austria's Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said the European Union should stop clinging to its troubled plan.
While last year hundreds of thousands of migrants fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East crossed Hungary on their way to richer countries in Western Europe, this year Hungary recorded around 18,000 illegal border crossings.
