Anti-migrant referendum in Hungary | 10 comments (10 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Seed comment (4.00 / 5)

Of course, all of this is happening to a backdrop of a wave of xenophobia sweeping all of Europe, with almost all governments going along to some extent. And my own opinion of the resettlement quota idea is also negative, even of for completely different reasons from Orbán: I think refugees have the best chance of integration in countries where (1) they have friends & relatives who can help, (2) they speak the language or can learn it relatively easily, (3) there is a halfway working refugee support and integration policy and (4) the economy is in a better shape – in other words, the very countries refugees are heading to and the governments of which would appease local xenophobes with the resettlements.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sun Oct 2nd, 2016 at 07:17:04 PM EST

More baldies (4.00 / 6)

What else of note happened in Hungarian politics in the last few months? More mafia methods.

In the diary, I mentioned the Orbán government's U-turn in the face of the certain success of a referendum initiative of the Socialists, with a link to my diary on the subject. You may remember that the whole episode was noteworthy for a group of ugly heavies with the look of football hooligans who hindered the Socialists from officially submitting their referendum question. Since then, Fidesz used these guys in another conflict. In the summer, protesters blocked construction workers at a controversial reconstruction project in a public part in Budapest. Then the army of "baldies" turned up clad as construction workers and attacked the protesters in collision with police. According to an investigative report, the "baldies" weren't organised via the previously-known football hooligan – far-right rioter nexus but have been gathered by recruiters going around in bodybuilder clubs.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sun Oct 2nd, 2016 at 07:30:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: More baldies (none / 1)

Some bad typos above... the reconstruction project was in a public park, and there was collusion between the baldies and police.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sun Oct 2nd, 2016 at 09:16:26 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Seed comment (4.00 / 3)

I wouldn't have thought that EU-wide quotas would appease xenophobes, since they'll be focused on the number of refugees their own country has to accept -- which to them will always be too many, no matter the actual number,

by Gag Halfrunt on Sun Oct 2nd, 2016 at 08:24:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Seed comment (4.00 / 2)

The way I read it, Merkel & co's subliminal message longside the quota proposals was "see, we are doing something to reduce the numbers of refugees in our country, by forcing other countries to "share the burden". That refugees are always too many for the xenophobes is then an error in the calculation. A bigger one is that the quota proposals implicitly (or even explicitly) accept the validity of the claim that "there are too many refugees", to the benefit of opponents to the right, without a political gain for the governments.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sun Oct 2nd, 2016 at 09:00:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Seed comment (none / 0)

To the extent that there is a refugee problem, it's an issue of adult education not being good enough, which is frankly a problem we should be working on regardless. Uhm. Who should one write letters to suggesting we get on that..?

by Thomas on Fri Oct 7th, 2016 at 08:03:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Preliminary result (4.00 / 2)

Turnout: 43.35%
Valid votes as percentage of all eligible voters: 40.03%
Against votes as percentage of all valid votes: 98.32%

The Against votes are a little bit above the sum of the latest opinion poll numbers for Fidesz (26%) and Jobbik (12%). Needless to say, the fact that almost 40% of the population have bought into a no-holds-barred far-right campaign is bad enough.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sun Oct 2nd, 2016 at 09:02:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Preliminary result (none / 1)

Jobbik's leader is calling on Orbán to follow David Cameron's Brexit example and resign...

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sun Oct 2nd, 2016 at 09:07:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Anti-migrant referendum in Hungary | 10 comments (10 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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