In his pre-agenda speech during today’s session of Parliament, Head of the Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister Antal Rogán asked MPs to support a debate on the ordering of the 2016 referendum outside the usual rules of parliamentary procedure so that Parliament can order the referendum on the compulsory resettlement quota as soon as possible.

Parliament voted to forego the usual rules of procedure with 145 votes in favour and 30 against from left wing politicians, and accordingly the debate on the proposal will begin today, with the closing vote on Tuesday. If the National Assembly orders the referendum then the date will be set by the President of the Republic. The referendum is expected to be held sometime in September or October.

According to Mr. Rogán, the referendum is urgent, because Brussels is proposing increasingly aggressive plans for compulsory resettlement. With regard to the referendum on the quota initiated by the Government, he said that compulsory resettlement is a real and imminent danger; EU negotiations on the issue have begun and progress is now expected to be more rapid. What is also clear from the latest European Commission proposal is that an immigrant is worth 78 million forints (EUR 250,000), but a Hungarian is worth less than 1 million forints (EUR 3,200), he added. The total per capita sum of EU funding over a period of 7 years is less than 1 million forints, he explained. These are some of the reasons why an early referendum is important, he argued, noting that the referendum could be held in late summer or early autumn at the latest. According to the Minister, the issue is also about Hungary’s sovereignty, and more specifically the element of the country’s sovereignty that concerns the fact that it will not forego the right to decide who the people of Hungary should have to live with.

The question to be put forward at the now legally authorised referendum is as follows: “Do you agree that the European Union should have the power to impose the compulsory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary without the consent of the National Assembly of Hungary?”

The Government is asking the people of Hungary to say no to compulsory resettlement and protect Hungary’s independence.

(MTI; kormany.hu)