Hungarians oppose EU migrant policy, but not in enough numbers for impact
Hungarians voted overwhelming Sunday against mandatory European Union quotas for distributing migrant asylum seekers among member nations. But a turnout of less than 50% rendered the referendum non-binding.
More than 3.2 million voters — 98% of those who cast valid ballots — backed the government position, but turnout was only 43.9%, the National Election Office said. Fifty percent plus one vote was needed for the referendum to be valid.
About 4% of the votes were spoiled — in part because some opponents deliberately cast invalid ballots in protest. It drove down the ratio of valid votes to just below 40% of the electorate.
The government claimed a “sweeping victory,” while analysts called the result an embarrassment for Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who called for the vote. Orban is a critic of the EU refugee resettlement policy and a proponent of giving member nations more say in EU decisions..
“We can be proud that we are the first and so far only member state of the European Union” to hold such a referendum, Orban told supporters. “Hungarians were able to give their direct opinions on the issue of immigration.”
Orban said he hoped anti-quota referendums would be held in other countries.
“Orban was able to dominate public discourse with an issue in which the majority was on his side,” Tamas Boros, an analyst at Policy Solutions, a political consulting firm, told the Associated Press. “But it seems he went too far and overestimated how much people’s opinions are transformed into votes.”
Orban said he would next present a proposal to amend the nation's constitution to reflect the sentiment behind the vote.
“The (European) Union’s proposal is to let the migrants in and distribute them in mandatory fashion among the member states and for Brussels to decide about this distribution,” Orban said. “Hungarians today considered this proposal, and they rejected it. … The question was ‘Brussels (EU headquarters) or Budapest’ and we decided this issue is exclusively the competence of Budapest,” the Hungarian capital.
The referendum posed this question: “Do you want the European Union to be able to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary even without the consent of Parliament?”
Orban, a conservative, argued that a “No” vote supported Hungarian sovereignty. He'd promised to resign if the “Yes” votes won — a vow widely viewed as an attempt to boost turnout above 50% by drawing opponents to the polls.
While the referendum was not legally binding on the EU, Orban said its passage would pressure officials of the 28-nation alliance in Brussels. "The most important issue next week is for me to go to Brussels, hold negotiations and try with the help of this result — if the result is appropriate — achieve for it not to be mandatory to take in the kind of people in Hungary we don’t want to,” he said.
The Hungarian government also is seeking relief before the European Court of Justice because of the EU’s 2015 decision to relocate 160,000 asylum seekers from Greece and Italy. Under the original plan, 1,294 asylum seekers would be moved to Hungary.
The vote Sunday came after a campaign that urged citizens to “send a message to Brussels” and associated migrants with terrorism.
Some opposition and civic groups called on voters to stay home. Others urged them to cast invalid ballots that would not count in the final tally, but still could be interpreted as rejecting the government’s “zero migrants” policies.
Almost 400,000 migrants passed through Hungary last year en route to Western Europe. Fences erected by Hungary on the border with Serbia and Croatia, along with new expulsion policies, have reduced that number dramatically this year.
Hungary last year rejected over 80% of the asylum claims made in the country, one of the highest rates in the EU.
The United Kingdom is planning to exit the EU after 52% of its voters backed a separation in a June 23 referendum. A backlash against the EU's migrant policy was a major factor in that vote.