Hungary's EU refugee relocation quota referendum: 'Let's Send a Message to Brussels'

Sending a message to Brussels was the main declared objective of Hungary's Fidesz government, which posed the following referendum question to voters on 2 October 2016: 'Do you want the European Union to be entitled to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary without the consent of parliament?' Set against the background of the EU's refugee crisis reaching its peak in 2015, the answer, from virtually everyone who cast a valid ballot, was 'No'. However, turnout failed to reach the required 50% for a valid result. The 'quota referendum', as it is known, is to date the only EU-related vote in the Central and Eastern European Member States since they joined the EU in 2004, and a rare example of a referendum fought on a Eurosceptic platform by an internally united ruling party.