Hungary's Dual Referendums

BUDAPEST, December 6 – In a crushing blow to self-important politicians, journalists, and barroom bores across Hungary, an overwhelming majority of the nation's voters stayed home yesterday rather than participate in referendums on the supposed "hot-button" issues of dual-citizenship and hospital privatization. With a final turnout of less than 40%, neither of the thresholds required for approval or decisive rejection of the initiatives was met, despite the vigorous campaigning of the "yes" advocates, who claimed the measures were necessary and just, and the "no" contingent, who said they were dangerous and even potentially dumbass.

With the pathetic fizzling out of the divisive referendum campaign, the media spotlight that had briefly shone on Hungary was abruptly switched off, returning the country to the traditional pall of utter insignificance known to drive local politicians and Budapest-based foreign correspondents to drink and despair. At 12:00 CET Monday, the story on the BBC's website about the inconclusive election, "Low turnout scuppers Hungary vote," was relegated to an easily-overlooked slot off to one side of the European news page between a piece on a visit by the German Chancellor to Asia, and a report on electoral reform in the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia, and was illustrated with a goofball photo (above, right) of the rumps of old ladies voting in traditional dress. Meanwhile, four stories about neighboring Ukraine led the main BBC news page, as well as headlines around the world, even though nothing new actually happened in the strife-torn former Soviet republic over the weekend.

The dual-citizenship measure had been especially contentious, as it could have resulted in the wholesale granting of citizenship rights to millions of ethnic Hungarians in Romania, Slovakia and other countries occupying territory that was once part of Hungary. It was strongly opposed by the leaders of some of these countries, including the prime minister of Romania, who called the initiative "insane."

Well, now that you mention it...

However, the protests from abroad did not appear to have weighed on the "yes" vote, as anything the Romanians and other reliable enemies of Hungary oppose all real Hungarians are guaranteed to back wholeheartedly, even if they know it is insane, or even dumbass. In addition, posters for the "yes" vote featured a clever tagline ("We are writing history") and a girl with flawless skin and a spectacular rack (left).

Seasoned observers said the dual-citizenship measure had likely run aground on the well-known apathy and selfishness of the Hungarian electorate, which had been keenly stoked by Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány, who only got around this past week to saying which way he would vote, and missed no opportunity to point out that millions of newly-minted Hungarian citizens could mean fewer handouts for those already on the dole, which includes just about everyone in the country of 10 million. The measure also suffered from the realization on the part of many Hungarians that some of the supposedly heroic and "pure" Magyars in Romania poised to become their fellow citizens look suspiciously like gypsies.

Among those few Hungarians who actually got up from their TV sets to vote, a slight majority (51.55%) favored the dual-citizenship measure, while 65% favored the initiative on hospital privatization, which could have forced a halt to reform of the famously hypochondriac country's overwhelmed state health care system. At least a quarter of all registered voters needed to vote "yes" or "no" for either measure to be valid.

Orbán and Patrubány: together we are re-writing history

Following the announcement of the results, opposition leader Viktor Orbán insisted that the initiatives had not failed, despite the fact that they actually had. "The 'yes' votes won, the 'no' votes lost," the former prime minister was quoted as saying. "The referendum was valid," he added, somewhat oddly, given that it wasn't. More ominously, Miklós Patrubány, the leader of the World Federation of Hungarians, the group that had lead the campaign for dual-citizenship, said that the measure only came up short because of election fraud, and otherwise came within a pubic hair of blaming the whole fiasco on the Jews.

Meanwhile, the anti-climactic climax to the campaign left egg on the faces of many in the local second-language media, who had bombarded their readers with ponderous stories about a supposedly world-historical event that any eight-year-old could tell you was nothing more than a lame media stunt.

"We feel delightfully vindicated by the result," said Erik D'Amato, editor of Pestiside.hu, a popular English-language website that last week downplayed the referendums in favor of stories about Hollywood celebrities on drinking jags in Budapest, high-end shopping, stray dogs on the metro, and other allegedly "marginal" issues. "Who looks 'marginal' now?"