Hungarian Referendum: Which EU Country Is the Next?

• 10.04.2016, 17:35
•  Europe

Reuters

Hungarian PM Viktor Orban has declared victory in a referendum on mandatory EU migrant quotas, despite a low turnout that appeared to render it invalid.

Nearly 98% of those who took part supported the government's call to reject the EU plan.

But only 43% of the electorate voted, short of the 50% required to be valid, - BBC reports.

A government spokesman said the outcome was binding "politically and legally" but the opposition said the government did not have the support it needed.

A spokesman for the European Union's executive in turn told that a weekend referendum on EU migrant quotas was invalid due to insufficient voter turnout.

"We respect the democratic will of the Hungarian people, both of those who voted and of those who did not'', - European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said, according to Business Insider.

In his turn Mr Orban urged  EU decision makers to take note of the result and said he would change Hungary's constitution to make the decision binding.

"We have achieved an outstanding result. We are proud that we are the first" Orban said, "Unfortunately we are the only ones in the European Union who managed to have a referendum on the migrant issue", - Reuters reported.

However, the radical anti-migration views in Europe show that Hungary is maybe the first but not the only one to hold such a referendum.

The decisive Hungarian vote came as Sebastian Kurz, the Austria's foreign minister, said the European Union should drop its plan to distribute 160,000 refugees around the member states.

"The target is totally unrealistic," he said, according to Telegraph, warning that countries' disagreements over the plan could threaten "the cohesion of the entire European Union".

Mr Kurz also warned against western countries like Germany taking the ''moral high ground'' against the more recently-joined eastern EU states who have rejected the mostly-Muslim refugees as a threat to their white-Christian identity and culture.

Other Eastern European countries, including Slovakia and Poland, have also strongly opposed accepting migrants.