• Hungarian Referendum on Migrant Quotas: 98% Vote No, Turnout Still Below Validity Threshold
    39 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Trebgarta;51155036]It makes up actually 42% of the voterbase, so not really conclusive, since 57% stayed at home and since opposing parties stayed at home it seems like majority of Hungarians oppose this[/QUOTE] Now thats a stretch if I ever heard one. Considering the average turnout for referendums in the past 20 years (where parties always campaigned for yes or no votes) is about 45%, never above 51%. Since some of these questions carried even more weight, like EU and NATO memebership, it's safe to say that 49% of people (26% if you consider parlamentiary elections, although in my opinion its wrong to compare the two), are always apolitical about any issue. This is still a way more realistic assumption than the idea that somehow suddenly every single person eligible to vote formed a political opinion on an issue and voted or deliberately stayed at home to support a stance. It's likely that there is also a group of people who didn't go to vote because they don't want to support the current government even though they reject the quotas aswell, I know a few people like that. Either way, it was just announced the constitution will be amended in a way that granting settlement will only be possible for individual cases and not groups of people. The two thirds parliamentary support is pretty much guaranteed for this, so I guess the show is over.
[QUOTE=Trebgarta;51155036]It makes up actually 42% of the voterbase, so not really conclusive, since 57% stayed at home and since opposing parties stayed at home it seems like majority of Hungarians oppose this [/QUOTE] Again it depends on your narrative, I believe that people as a whole have good intentions but these intentions only stretch so far, so when they feel that certain policies will impact on their lives even if they feel these policies have good intentions that they will by and large reject them. I honestly don't believe that the liberal view regarding mass migration shared on SH is shared with the majority of Europes' population, Hungary and the UK being good examples.
[QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;51154016]This is not true and this story proves it. Not voting caused the vote to be invalid, which is the outcome desired by the people who did not vote. They 'won' by not voting, in effect they voted for what they wanted by not voting.[/QUOTE] Yea, they beat the system by invalidating it. Not only did they invalidate the opinion of their opposition, they invalidated their own vote. Thats not winning the vote, they just didnt vote.
[QUOTE=Trebgarta;51160116]Blocking your opposition is a win in its own right Hell, the only purpose youd vote Yes is to block No-sayers anyway Yes is status-quo, No-camp is asking for change.[/QUOTE] You got it backwards Considering that Hungary has already been refusing refugees, the vote failing to get yes votes is status-quo. If there had been enough yes votes to be a yes majoriy, then there would have been immigration reform. Yes voters basically shot themselves in the foot by not voting at all because now Hungary is still going to refuse any influx of immigrants.
All these arguments would make sense in another country, but this wasn't really a referendum. The question itself was biased against refugees (and there was some drama when the question was set, a Fidesz-affiliated "civilian" jumped the queue with the help of some big guys in sunglasses, really can't make this up) and Fidesz spent tens of millions of Euros on a smear campaign with billboards like "Did you know? The Paris terror attacks were carried out by migrants." (they weren't... French/Belgian born citizens) and "Did you know? The EU wants to settle the size of a small town in Hungary." (1600 people). Last time I was in Budapest you really couldn't avoid these billboards, they were absolutely everywhere, spreading lies like this. This was really a display of power/support from a horribly corrupt ruling party, and invalidating the vote was the only way to say fuck you to Fidesz and to avoid a "no" vote. My girlfriend and her family spoiled all of their ballots for this reason. Since the referendum a major national newspaper, coincidentally aligned to the opposition, has been shut down -- the employees couldn't enter the building, the web version is gone too, and the [I]main editor[/I] of the paper first found out about it from his friend over the phone. On the back of all this, the National Assembly is about to vote on a proposition to change the constitution [B]again[/B] to explicitly say that you cannot settle foreigners in Hungary except through a really extensive application process. Saw a lot of people judging the invalid votes as sleazy or underhanded tactics, just wanted to provide some context on this shitshow of a referendum.
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