On Tuesday, Minister of State for Government Communication Bence Tuzson told public television channel M1 that refusing to admit the 1,290 migrants whom Brussels says Hungary must receive would cost the country about HUF 100 billion.

Asked whether the Government has already calculated how much the Hungarian budget would suffer if Brussels does indeed require payment of penalties from Member States who refuse to receive refugees, Mr. Tuzson said that the amount would be higher than the funds allocated on VAT cuts.

“We are talking about very large sums: we reject this. And we have found allies in the Czechs, the Slovaks and the Poles”, the Minister of State stressed.

When speaking about the Fidesz request to opposition parties not to obstruct the referendum with constitutional objections, Mr. Tuzson said that “we have no illusions, and we expect the opposition to challenge the referendum, as they did with the initiative. But naturally we are prepared to face this, even though it will take time, and we do not have so much time.”

“All the evidence points to the opposition following this route. Therefore we expect that they will challenge the referendum within the next few weeks – they have about 15 days to do so. The Constitutional Court will then have 30 days to make a decision on the case. Whether the Court will use all the available time or not, we can count holding the referendum in September or October. According to legislation, the President has to set the date of the referendum within 70 to 90 days of the decision.”

“Brussels has accelerated its decision-making mechanism, and it is possible that they will make some sort of binding decision before the summer recess. In this respect we are in a really tough race against time – not only in terms of the Hungarian referendum, but also because we can see certain processes emerging in Europe which are unfavourable for Brussels. We can see that the people of Europe do not agree with the migrant policy that a majority of European leaders are following. It would have been better if we had been able to hold the referendum before the summer, but unfortunately we will not be able to do so”, Mr. Tuzson explained.

He stressed that “the essence of democracy is precisely that people have opinions, which they can express through voting. This is how they elect politicians to represent them, based on their programmes. Saying that the citizens’ opinions are not important, and making decisions over their heads is cynical – and this definitely contradicts citizens’ opinions. This is unacceptable at a European level, and it is unacceptable to any nation.”

The Minister of State pointed out that in terms of the European Commission’s proposal of last Wednesday, Member States would have the possibility to temporarily refuse participation in the automatic distribution of refugees, in exchange for a “solidarity contribution” of EUR 250,000 per person refused entry. With this scheme, the Commission has proposed rewriting the so-called Dublin Regulation, which lays down the rules for asylum procedures.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister)