Let's Drink to Democracy!

As you may already know, this Sunday Hungary will vote on a pair of referendums. One will ask voters if they want to order a halt to all privatization of hospitals. The other, more significant question is whether dual citizenship should be extended to millions of ethnic Hungarians in Romania, Slovakia and other neighboring countries. From what we can tell, passions are running pretty high on both questions, especially the latter. For example, we were just emailed the above picture, which is apparently a clever bit of guerilla marketing by opponents of the dual-citizenship measure; the tagline above the dusky, drunk and impoverished would-be Hungarian citizens is "At New Year's we'll be together!" That's funny, we thought the people who are for dual-citizenship are supposed to be the racists...

While you should duly note (and, if you can, vote in) the upcoming referendum, we would strongly recommend that you not waste any time between now and then worrying about the results. Instead, check back on Monday morning for our complete post-referenda report. In the meantime we suggest you simply do like our potential countrymen in the above photo, and have a relaxing drink - or eight or nine - to get ready for next week's inevitable hangover.