On Monday 5 October, the European Commission took official note of the results of a Hungarian referendum on future EU migration policies that the Hungarian electoral commission finally ruled invalid due to low turnout.
Of the 45% of voters who went to the polls in Hungary on Sunday, 95% (more than 3 million) refused to agree to Brussels forcing compulsory quotas of asylum-seekers on Hungary without the approval of the Hungarian parliament. The Hungarian electoral commission ruled the results invalid because the compulsory turnout of 50% had not been achieved.
The Commission would have taken note of the referendum result whether ruled valid or invalid, said European Commission spokesperson Margaritis Schinas.
At the European Parliament, some groups made no secret of their delight on Sunday evening, the Greens/EFA for example. Belgian MEP Philippe Lamberts said in a press release that the highly aggressive propaganda had clearly not convinced the majority of Hungarian voters and Hungarians had been able to resist the hate speeches of their leaders. The other co-president of the Greens/EFA, Germany’s Ska Keller, tweeted that it was time to deal with the real problems, such as migrants’ fundamental rights. French MEP Eva Joly said the real threat for the EU was not migrants but member states’ irresponsible approaches.
Gianni Pittella, head of the S&D group at the European Parliament, said that the whole of Europe had won and populism and xenophobia had lost. He praised Hungarians for staying away from the polling stations.
Orbán's campaign goes on. Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán said on Sunday evening that although not valid, the referendum had been an excellent result and a victory against Brussels. Far from giving up on his campaign against decisions at EU level in September 2015 on the relocation of asylum-seekers (see EUROPE 11394) and against the EU’s future quota-based migration policies, Orbán announced that he would have the outcome of the vote added to the Hungarian constitution to reflect the people’s desire.
On Monday afternoon, a European Commission spokesperson reminded Orbán of the primacy of EU law on national rights and the fact that all member states were bound by the relocation decisions adopted in 2015 in line with the treaties. This is part of the Community acquis and must be applied, said the spokesperson. Politically, the Commission refuses to offer official legal proceedings against the recalcitrant countries.
Several northern European countries have complained about Hungary’s refusal to apply the Dublin rules on asylum, whereby it must readmit asylum-seekers from elsewhere in the EU who lodged their first asylum application in Hungary. The European Commission responded to these five countries on 30 September and is in contact with the Hungarian authorities said Natasha Bertaud, spokesperson for migration and home affairs. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)