Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s failed referendum against EU refugee quotas brought him harsh attacks at home and dismissal abroad. Orban suffered a stinging domestic rebuke to his anti-refugee campaign on Sunday, when his pet referendum drew just 40 percent of eligible voters, rendering the plebiscite invalid. At least 50 percent turnout was needed. Still, more than 98 percent of those who cast a ballot supported Orban’s anti-refugee stance. Toth Csaba, an analyst at the Republikon Institute in Budapest, called the results a failure for a prime minister who put considerable resources into swaying public opinion ahead of the plebiscite. “It’s more of loss for the government,” Csaba said. “Expectations were very high, and the government put forth a massive spending campaign to support it.” Orban had called the referendum to boost his political standing at home – and to taunt Brussels and Berlin over a program that has been essentially discarded. Last year the European Union announced plans to introduce a system to distribute more than 1 million migrants among member states.
Orban and the leaders of neighboring EU countries balked at the quota regime, leaving countries such as Germany, which has taken in more than 1 million displaced people in the past year, with the responsibility of caring for refugees. So far, only 6,000 people have been redistributed to other EU countries.
The prime minister tried to spin Sunday’s dismal result as “outstanding,” noting that more Hungarians supported the referendum than had voted for EU accession in 2004. It’s true that 3.25 million voters backed Sunday’s referendum, whereas 3.1 million had voted for EU accession 12 years ago, but the latter ballot result was valid because it had had sufficient voter turnout.
Left-wing opponents campaigned against the referendum by urging voters to stay away, which they did in droves. To Orban’s political right, the Jobbik party slammed the referendum result as a “fiasco” and called on the prime minister to resign.
Full Article: Hungary: Orban embarrassed by refugee vote turnout | News | DW.COM | 03.10.2016.
