Hungary’s referendum: Anti-immigration camp wins and loses at same time

Anti-immigration camp in Hungary, which is being led by Prime Minister Victor Orban, who has long opposed the European Union’s immigrants’ distribution policy, enjoyed both a victory and a loss over the weekend. Over the weekend, Hungary held a referendum on EU immigration quota.

According to National Election Commission, 98.2 percent of the voters rejected the immigration quota but overall voters’ turnout was just 43.9 percent. Total voters’ turnout had to be a minimum of 50 percent to make the referendum legally binding.

However, Mr. Orban hailed the overwhelming majority of the voters as his victory and a voice against the immigration policy and downplayed lower voters’ turnout. He said that the numbers of Hungarian voted against the immigration policy surpassed the 3.1 million voters who backed joining the European Union in 2003. He also pledged to give legal effect to the verdict. He said that he will be submitting a proposal to amend the constitution in next couple of days, which means that Hungary would be heading for a showdown with Brussels.