Magyar News, 2004. szeptember-2005. augusztus (15. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2005-02-01 / 6. szám
I 1 51.5% OF 37.29% EQUALS 0 (ZERO, ZILCH, NOTHING) according to the new Hungarian math PM Gyurcsanyi leaving the voting place with a child. On the wall there are already caricatures about the voting Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsanyi celebrates as referendum flops. He has hailed the failure of a nationalist inspired referendum on Hungarian citizenship as a victory for common sense. The controversial referendum offering dual citizenship to millions of Hungarians living in neighboring countries flopped because the turnout came in at just 37%, well below the 50 % threshold necessary to validate it. So it wasn’t the YES against the NO. This means that 63% of the Hungarian voters didn’t give enough respect to the government, they simply didn’t show up. It is a poor picture of the trust they have for their government. According to Victor Orbán the voting was valid. Gyurcsanyi commented: "I hear the voice of the Hungarian nation. I hear its members saying no to the passions, no to partisanship, no to a fruitless looking back into the past and no to national and social populism." Sure, why should they love their own nation? The Treaty of Trianon in 1920 cut Hungary, to one-third of its size and leaving millions of Hungarians on the other side Hungary’s new borders. Of the 2.5 million ethnic Hungarians living as minorities in neighboring countries, 1.5 million are in Romania, 600,000 in Slovakia, 300,000 in Serbia and others in Croatia, Ukraine, Slovenia and Austria. The vote sought to redress what many Hungarians view as an historic injustice. On the internet a women by the name of Maria poured her heart out. “As a Hungarian living abroad I am deeply ashamed that our people have allowed this lowest of the lowest government as well as the past communist regimes to brainwash them to this point. It is shameful that the Hungarians would not support the core population of the historical Hungary. This is our roots this is our past and our future. Denying citizenship is not only letting them down but letting ourselves down. When a nation denies its roots it is condemned to death. The Hungarians just allowed the communists to lead the country to the slaughter-house. Vote these a— holes out of the parliament and out of the country forever in 2005. These are traitors sitting in your jobs holding the guns to your and your children's head. I can't believe that Hungarians are ashamed of being Hungarian, to display their patriotism. The past 40 years have brainwashed them to the point that they believe that being proud of who you are and support and nurture your roots is a crime. All other country is proud to be what they are.” I would think about her as a “Jó magyar kardos menyecske.” Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase had blasted the initiative, saying he was against the granting of citizenship in his country based on ethnic rather than an individual basis. He forgot to talk about the dual citizenship Romania and the other countries offer to their ethnic groups living in other countries. We have a few statistics from the National Elections Office. It reported the highest turnout - 49.12pc - from Budapest, and the lowest - 30.05pc - from Szabolcs- Szatmar-Bereg County in the east. The turnout was 3-6pc lower in Hungary's poorer eastern regions compared to the west, where average turnout was around 37pc. In Budapest, turnout was well over 50pc in wealthier districts on the leafy Buda side of the city, the capital's conservative heartland, while less voters showed up at the polls in working class areas that are traditional strongholds of the ruling Socialists, who campaigned for a "no" .. József Kasza from Vojvodina said “I think it is high time for those who drove the issue to a dead end to accept responsibility for the failure, draw the conclusions, resign and disappear from the scene of history, as they had caused enormous damage to the nation." □ An over view of the country’s numbers. The top number is YES, the bottom is NO. Page 1
