Hungary's refugee referendum invalid due to low turnout

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has failed to convince a majority of his population to vote in a referendum on closing the door to refugees, rendering the result invalid and undermining his campaign for a cultural counter-revolution within the European Union.

More than 95% of participants in Sunday’s referendum sided with Orbán by voting against the admission of refugees to Hungary, allowing him to claim an “outstanding” victory. But less than half of the electorate (43%) turned up to vote, rendering the process constitutionally null and void as 50% is required for it to be valid.

A government spokesman said the outcome was binding "politically and legally" but the opposition said the government did not have the support it needed.

Orbán himself put a positive spin on the low turnout. He argued that while “a valid [referendum] is always better than an invalid [referendum]” the extremely high proportion of no-voters still gave him a mandate to go to Brussels next week “to ensure that we should not be forced to accept in Hungary people we don’t want to live with.”

He argued that the poll would encourage a wave of similar votes across the EU. “We are proud that we are the first,” he said, urging EU decision makers to take note of the result. “I will change Hungary's constitution to make the decision binding,” he added.

The result, though, gives potential respite to German chancellor Angela Merkel, and EU officials in Brussels, whose comparatively progressive refugee policies and liberal political outlook had been under sustained assault from Orbán in recent months.