Hungary Sets October Referendum as Orban Targets EU Quotas
- President Janos Ader sets referendum date for Oct. 2
- Government initiated vote before UK decided to leave bloc
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Hungarians will vote in a referendum this fall on a European Union plan to share the burden of sheltering refugees as Prime Minister Viktor Orban seeks to add weight to his resistance against immigration.
President Janos Ader set October 2 as the date for the ballot, which was initiated by Orban against what he called the EU’s "abuse of power" in designating mandatory refugee quotas for member states. The cabinet, which has led a billboard campaign against immigrants and built fortifications to keep them out, proposed the referendum before U.K. citizens decided last month to leave the bloc.