Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban's crusade against the European Union's migration policy fumbled on a technicality Sunday when a referendum on the EU refugee resettlement quota for the country failed to achieve the required 50-percent turnout.
Though only 45 percent of Hungary's electorate took part in the referendum, governing Fidesz party vice president Gergely Gulyas spoke of a "landslide victory."
Of those who cast their ballots, 95 percent - 3.2 million voters - rejected the EU quota, Gulyas said, speaking ahead of official results from election officials.
"We can rightly say that this is an overwhelming victory for all who reject the immigration quotas, who believe that only the strong nation-states endure, who believe in democracy," Gulyas said.
Initiated by Orban's conservative government, the "Yes" or "No" referendum asked voters: "Do you want the European Union to be able, without consulting [the Hungarian] parliament, to decree the compulsory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens into Hungary?"
Under a plan approved by a majority of EU member states last year, the bloc is aiming to resettle 160,000 asylum seekers stranded in Italy and Greece across the bloc, with 1,300 assigned to Hungary.
Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and the Czech Republic all voted against the plan. Hungary has not yet accepted any of its quota and is suing the European Union in the European Court of Justice over the redistribution plan.
In a months-long campaign with xenophobic and alarmist undertones, the Fidesz party had campaigned for a "no" vote in Sunday's referendum.
Orban had repeatedly stressed the importance of a valid referendum for his "fight against Brussels bureaucracy," but he backtracked Sunday morning when he cast his vote in a residential district in Budapest.
Orban told reporters waiting in front of the voting station that, whether the vote was rendered valid or not, his right-wing government would act.
"We have always said that only the Hungarian parliament can decide with whom the Hungarian people want to live," Orban said. "And that is what we will legally establish."
