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Hungary votes to reject migrants
Hungarian Prime Minister, Orban won a referendum to reject Brussel's migrant quotas.
Bill board in the run up to the vote says 'Let's not risk it! Vote no! October 2nd.'
Hungarians had their own referendum this October. The stakes weren't as high as ours, though the consequences pretty were similar - a rejection of Brussel's policy making. They went to the polls to make a decision on whether the country should accept the EU quota of immigrants.
Their Prime Minister; the right-winger Viktor Orban strongly opposed the EU's plan, which would see 1,294 migrants sent to settle in Hungary over a two year period. Apparently his people backed him as around 98% of people voted against the quotas. Well not exactly - as only 43% actually turned out to cast their votes, rendering this referendum result invalid. Though, try telling that to Orban...
Hungarians were asked 'Do you want the European Union to be able to maintain the obligatory resettlement of non-Hungarian citizens into Hungary, even without the approval of the National Assembly?'
He's heralded the result as a victory for his government, and will only fuel his anti-EU campaign. In some ways, Orban has won his campaign - however we cannot detach from his inability to convince most Hungarians out to vote, in this sense it's a lose.
A government spokesperson stated that the result is 'politically and legally' binding, and Orban has told the EU to take note. But opposition members say that the low turn out means that most people do not agree with him.
Tensions have risen in the central European country after thousands of migrants traveled through last summer, hoping to get to richer EU states including Germany and Austria. In an effort to stop this, they sealed their borders with Croatia and Serbia with razor-wire fence - despite strong criticism from human rights groups.
