“There is a huge difference in importance between the government’s referendum on the compulsory resettlement quota and the MSZP’s proposal for a referendum on shops being close in Sundays”, Minister of State for Government Communication Bence Tuzson declared on Hungarian TV2 television’s Wednesday morning programme, “Mocha”.

Mr. Tuzson said that in the quota referendum people are being asked a question that determines the future of the nation in the long term, while the ban on Sunday shopping is just an issue concerning people’s lifestyles.

For this reason, the two referendums should be handled totally separately, meaning it would not be right to hold both of them on the same day, the Minister of State said. The exact cost of the quota referendum is still unknown, but it is not primarily a question of money. The referendum will be even more important than a general election, because people will not just be deciding about the next four years, but about a much longer period, he added.

The National Assembly has to decide, but the socialists have already declared that they will put the issue before the Constitutional Court, to which they have the opportunity and a legal right. “We regret the fact that as a result they are again supporting the quota and have now sided with compulsory resettlement, but we will we face this challenge too and we believe that if the President of the Republic sets the date for the referendum, which is expected to be sometime in September-October, then we will be able to hold this referendum. This will be the date on which the people of Hungary can decide on this truly pivotal issue, because this is the issue that could determine the future of the country not just for five-ten years but perhaps for the next century, he noted.

This is precisely the kind of issue that is not about daily politics. It is about who we, our children and our grandchildren will be living together with. And in this respect we must stop Brussels. And Brussels can only be stopped by one thing: the voice of the people of Hungary. This has always been the case during the course of European Union history. These kinds of European moves, arbitrary European moves that go against the will of Member States and are contrary to European regulations, can only be stopped if a referendum decides on the issue, Mr. Tuzson highlighted.

With relation to visa-free travel for Turkish citizens, the Minister of States said: “Hungary’s standpoint is that we can begin moving in a direction that would afford them visa-free travel, but we must also pay attention to states that have been working for a long time to fulfil the requirements, such as Ukraine. Naturally, visa-free travel can only be afforded to countries that conform to all the legal requirements, and that includes Turkey. It is not a good idea to connect two independent issues. So the fact that Hungary and the European Union have an agreement with Turkey on another issue concerning admittance is a different issue concerning refugees. The fact that there are regulations in Europe to which people must conform to be afforded this kind of preferential treatment is an issue that must be handled totally independently”.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister, MTI)