Hungary to vote on migrant quotas

The office of Hungarian President Janos Ader says he has set October 2 as the date for a government-initiated referendum seeking political support to oppose any European Union efforts to resettle migrants among its member states.

Orban is opposed to an European Union plan devised a year ago to redistribute 120,000 asylum seekers among 28 member states.

Ader’s office said Tuesday that the question to be asked in the referendum will be: “Do you want the European Union to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary even without the consent of Parliament?”

The proposal was meant to ease pressure on Greece and Italy, the main entry points for migrants and refugees into the bloc.

Hungarian PM Orban announced plans to call a referendum on mandatory migrant quotas proposed by the European Union in February.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who initiated the decision, earlier said a “no” vote would be in favor of Hungary’s independence.

Following the Brexit vote Hungary’s Prime Minister Victor Orban is capitalizing on a wave of Euroscepticism to present himself as a champion of national interests against Brussels. Hungary has made zero places available but is meant to take in 1,294 people.

Residents on the Hungarian border say Syrian refugees form gangs and threaten locals.

Orban has long had a testy relationship with Brussels with critics saying that his shake-up of Hungarian institutions from 2010 has undermined democracy.

Hungary, a postcommunist state of around 10 million people, was among the first EU members to erect a barrier on its border with fellow EU countries amid the heavy illegal migrant flows in 2015, in what was widely seen as a direct challenge to the EU principle of free movement of goods and people.

The Hungary authorities also brought in tough new laws punishing illegal entry and vandalism of the fences. More than 17,000 migrants have crossed into Hungary illegally from Serbia so far this year, according to the government.

Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Tuesday this may result in police “forcibly expelling (migrants) without any form of legal procedure”.

The referendum is valid only if turnout is at least 50 percent.

The Hungarian vote threatens to deliver another black eye to Brussels on the heels of fellow European Union member United Kingdom’s June 23 referendum to leave the bloc, which sent markets tumbling and has prompted a rethink of some of the fundamental planks of the decades-long effort at economic and political harmonization.