Hungarian , or Magyar ( magyar nyelv , pronounced [ˈmɒɟɒr ˈɲɛlv] ), is a Uralic language of the Ugric branch spoken in Hungary and parts of several neighboring countries. It is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Outside Hungary, it is also spoken by Hungarian communities in southern Slovakia , western Ukraine ( Transcarpathia ), central and western Romania ( Transylvania ), northern Serbia ( Vojvodina ), northern Croatia , northeastern Slovenia ( Prekmurje ), and eastern Austria ( Burgenland ).
179-553: The Hungarian Two-Tailed Dog Party ( Hungarian : Magyar Kétfarkú Kutya Párt , pronounced [ˈmɒɟɒr ˈkeːtfɒrkuː ˈkucɒ ˈpaːrt] ; MKKP [ˈɛmkaːkaːpeː] ) is a political party in Hungary . It was founded in Szeged in 2006, but did not register as an official political party until 2014. The party's main activity is street art , consisting of graffiti , stencils, and posters which parody Hungary's political elite. Because
358-601: A Turkic language continued to be a matter of impassioned political controversy throughout the 18th and into the 19th centuries. During the latter half of the 19th century, a competing hypothesis proposed a Turkic affinity of Hungarian, or, alternatively, that both the Uralic and the Turkic families formed part of a superfamily of Ural–Altaic languages . Following an academic debate known as Az ugor-török háború ("the Ugric-Turkic war"),
537-417: A circumfix , to change a word's meaning and its grammatical function. Hungarian uses vowel harmony to attach suffixes to words. That means that most suffixes have two or three different forms, and the choice between them depends on the vowels of the head word. There are some minor and unpredictable exceptions to the rule. Nouns have 18 cases , which are formed regularly with suffixes. The nominative case
716-602: A mobile application , through which any voter could show an invalid ballot on the day of the referendum. During the campaign, some MKKP posters were vandalized and torn down. There were unconfirmed reports that some Fidesz-led local governments in the Budapest area (such as Terézváros and Újbuda ) and elsewhere, sent public workers to hide or to tear down the Two-tailed Party posters. The governments accused of this did not respond to requests for comment. After these incidents,
895-504: A "cultural counter-revolution" within the EU which would lead to the "end of liberal Europe". The referendum was: Akarja-e, hogy az Európai Unió az Országgyűlés hozzájárulása nélkül is előírhassa nem magyar állampolgárok Magyarországra történő kötelező betelepítését? In English: Do you want to allow the European Union to mandate the resettlement of non-Hungarian citizens to Hungary without
1074-533: A "historic blind alley". On 16 September, Gyurcsány claimed the Fidesz government will initiate an early parliamentary election, if the quota referendum will be valid. He said Orbán "builds a new political community through fear and hate campaign [...]". Few days later, Gyurcsány told that he received this information from the inner circle of Prime Minister Orbán. During an interview, Orbán refused Gyurcsány's allegations. The Prime Minister said "early parliamentary election
1253-690: A "threat", part of the Fidesz's "political blackmail" and "threat"; Lázár repudiated this interpretation. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán claimed that EU leaders had made secret deals with Hungarian towns governed by left-wing politicians (such as Szeged , Zugló , Ajka and Salgótarján ) to accept migrants, bypassing the national government. He cited EP President Martin Schulz's earlier words in an interview that "even in Hungary there are places where migrants are not sent back", and explicitly named Szeged, where "all refugees could safely go". Socialist politician László Botka ,
1432-538: A "very bad political message" which weakens the cooperation between the European nations. The Liberals took out a loan of HUF 12 million to pay for 150 billboards with pro-Yes messages, such as "If You stay home, Orbán remains upon us. Vote Yes!" Guy Verhofstadt , the leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group (ALDE), who called the referendum question "leading and manipulative", and said it undermines
1611-461: A better way to assist refugees would be "to take aid to where they live, instead of allowing the problems into Europe". However, on 29 September, after releases of unfavorable data about the expected voter turnout, Orbán already told Katolikus Rádió that "the participation in the referendum has no political significance", but also said that the result will show whether "Hungarians indeed form a community, or just randomly live together". He also said that
1790-461: A chant of "What do we want? Nothing! When do we want it? Never!". In 2010, the party announced their candidacy for mayor of Budapest with the main slogan "Let everything be better!". Campaign slogans include "More everything, less nothing!", "Eternal life, free beer, tax-deduction!" and "We promise anything!". In Erzsébetváros (District VII, Budapest), the mayoral candidate of the party was notable stand-up comedian Dániel Mogács, who has carried out
1969-493: A couple sitting on sofa who giving the finger to the government's campaign message on TV. "For a stupid question, this is the answer!" and "Who stay at home, votes for Europe" slogans were appeared in that poster. MoMa president Lajos Bokros told "there is no right answer to a nefarious question". Együtt leader Viktor Szigetvári said "we are disgusted from what Viktor Orbán is doing with this country". According to Dialogue for Hungary co-chair Gergely Karácsony , "this referendum
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#17330859551482148-534: A debate with Fidesz caucus leader Lajos Kósa, where she said "the issue of migration was always a national competence", and claimed the referendum initiative is a "trickery to exercise of power". She added the LMP will argue in favour of neither of the options. Formerly some intellectuals, including Gáspár Miklós Tamás , criticized her participation in the Fidesz-backed free university and false reports accused that Szél urged
2327-411: A deliberate campaign strategy, since the government intended to mobilize the party voters by raising the stakes of the referendum. Fidesz MEP András Gyürk denied such plans in his blog entry, saying that "[...] By holding the referendum, Hungary wants to save the EU from going down a path that will further destabilize the EU and member state governments" and quoted Orbán's statement that "we believe in
2506-513: A distraction from these legal abuses by the MSZP. In July, deputy chairman Zoltán Gőgös suggested on the quota referendum that "everybody should stay at home to stay in Europe". He added, the "people have to show to Orbán that they choose the European community instead of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan ". During these early months, the MSZP concentrated on its own referendum plan related to the land law adopted by
2685-458: A great uproar among the opposition community. Later that day, Molnár corrected and refined his assertion, and emphasized the "senseless nature" of the referendum. In addition, the Socialist Party campaigned for boycott with the word "Yes" in a poster. Several critics said the Socialist Party became a satellite organization to the Fidesz (or at least "His Majesty's loyal opposition") to increase
2864-483: A handful of mayoral candidates, most notably in Ferencváros and Szombathely . After the election, newly elected Ferencváros mayor Krisztina Baranyi appointed MKKP member Zsuzsanna Döme as one of her deputy mayors. The party officially took part in the 2022 parliamentary elections and increased their vote share to 3.27% of the total vote, making them the fourth largest political block, but gained no seats because of
3043-681: A high proportion of words specific to agriculture and livestock are of Chuvash origin. A strong Chuvash influence was also apparent in Hungarian burial customs. The first written accounts of Hungarian date to the 10th century, such as mostly Hungarian personal names and place names in De Administrando Imperio , written in Greek by Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VII . No significant texts written in Old Hungarian script have survived, because
3222-927: A joint statement, signed by the Hungarian National Council of Transylvania (EMNT), the Szekler National Council (SZNT), the Hungarian People's Party of Transylvania (EMNP), the Hungarian Civic Party (MPP), The Party of the Hungarian Community (MKP), the Hungarian Democratic Party of Vojvodina, the Hungarian Democratic Community of Vojvodina, the Democratic Union of Hungarians of Croatia (HMDK),
3401-447: A member of the European Union". The Szombathely branch of the party also argued for invalid vote. Eszter Móricz, a local representative of the party in the 15th district of Budapest declared "as a private individual" that she will vote "No" as a "devout Christian woman". She added that situation should be avoided, when a woman will be forced to fear from the enforcement of Sharia in Hungary. After that statement, her party membership
3580-399: A millennium. These include tehén 'cow' (cf. Avestan daénu ); tíz 'ten' (cf. Avestan dasa ); tej 'milk' (cf. Persian dáje 'wet nurse'); and nád 'reed' (from late Middle Iranian ; cf. Middle Persian nāy and Modern Persian ney ). Archaeological evidence from present-day southern Bashkortostan confirms the existence of Hungarian settlements between
3759-728: A million additional people scattered in other parts of the world. For example, there are more than one hundred thousand Hungarian speakers in the Hungarian American community and 1.5 million with Hungarian ancestry in the United States . Hungarian is the official language of Hungary, and thus an official language of the European Union. Hungarian is also one of the official languages of Serbian province of Vojvodina and an official language of three municipalities in Slovenia : Hodoš , Dobrovnik and Lendava , along with Slovene . Hungarian
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#17330859551483938-496: A mockery of the institution of referendum...and it serves only a political campaign based on xenophobia". The organization held a 'Refugees Welcome' rally with the slogan "See the Human!" on 30 September, also attended by directors Béla Tarr and Róbert Alföldi , actor András Bálint , and poet Virág Erdős. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee argued that the "...majority of these people [refugees] are children! Europe, including Hungary, means
4117-530: A number of awareness-generating actions during the campaign period, including a surreal interview with television host Olga Kálmán ( ATV's Straight Talk). However, neither candidate was able to collect the appropriate number of recommendation slips to participate in the election. According to its detailed economic program, MKKP intended to develop Szeged space station into an interplanetary spaceport, which would be used for Pulis ' export to Jamaica . The program also contained environmental elements, such as patching
4296-461: A party of communist ideology) emphasized that his party "says no to the EU's aggression". He said that EU leaders' intervention in the Middle East led to the current migrant crisis. The Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party (FKgP) argued that "threat [to the Hungarian nation] is not a party political issue" and everyone should say "No" to the quotas, even though Fidesz would use
4475-512: A press conference held by Socialist politician Tamás Harangozó , who requested the disclosure of the data, these amounts include only spending prior to the end of July 2016; Harangozó said the total amount could reach HUF 16 to 17 billion, with the referendum's administrative costs included. In comparison, Fidesz spent only HUF 2.8 billion on its entire campaign during the 2014 parliamentary election . Fidesz-aligned non-governmental organizations and trade unions, like Sándor Lezsák 's National Forum,
4654-406: A process of nyelvújítás ( language revitalization ). Some words were shortened ( győzedelem > győzelem , 'victory' or 'triumph'); a number of dialectal words spread nationally ( e.g. , cselleng 'dawdle'); extinct words were reintroduced ( dísz , 'décor'); a wide range of expressions were coined using the various derivative suffixes; and some other, less frequently used methods of expanding
4833-407: A question at all". Kovács told The Guardian that the Fidesz politicians "want people to talk about the nonexistent migrants" instead of corruption scandals and the catastrophic situation in the health sector. "I've never seen so much hate in this country before," he added. The MKKP also used the "Stupid Answer to a Stupid Question! Vote invalidly!" slogan in its billboards. The party also developed
5012-495: A referendum on the EU's migrant resettlement plans, but also accused the government of double talk. Four days before the announcement of a referendum, party spokesperson Dániel Z. Kárpát said that Viktor Orbán, along with the other heads of governments, signed the final document which concluded the European Council Summit of 18–19 February 2016, and that this document endorsed the EU compulsory resettlement quota along with
5191-995: A similarly dramatic way over these three centuries. After the arrival of the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin , the language came into contact with a variety of speech communities , among them Slavic , Turkic , and German . Turkic loans from this period come mainly from the Pechenegs and Cumanians , who settled in Hungary during the 12th and 13th centuries: e.g. koboz " cobza " (cf. Turkish kopuz 'lute'); komondor "mop dog" (< * kumandur < Cuman ). Hungarian borrowed 20% of words from neighbouring Slavic languages : e.g. tégla 'brick'; mák 'poppy seed'; szerda 'Wednesday'; csütörtök 'Thursday'...; karácsony 'Christmas'. These languages in turn borrowed words from Hungarian: e.g. Serbo-Croatian ašov from Hungarian ásó 'spade'. About 1.6 percent of
5370-485: A strong European Union". In August 2016, the Brussels-based European edition of Politico described the event as "Viktor Orbán's Potemkin referendum". The journal argued "Hungary actually needs migrants, even if it doesn't want them", citing that Hungarian businesses were suffering from skilled labor shortages. According to The Economist , the referendum was a "challenge to the authority of Brussels and
5549-524: A validly adopted EU act pre-empts any conflicting act under national law from being applied. Hence, a national referendum (or law) could not override the decision of the EU Council of Ministers to relocate asylum seekers within the EU. Several domestic and foreign political scientists and journalists argued that the Orbán government planned for the referendum to be the first step towards a Hungarian withdrawal from
Hungarian Two-Tailed Dog Party - Misplaced Pages Continue
5728-506: Is street art : graffiti , stencils, and various posters. These are often humorous critiques of company policies, the state of Hungarian railroads, common advertisements, and so forth. There have also been attempts to sabotage large billboard signs or provide simple meta-humour. A party leader was sued by the Hungarian State Railways over stickers saying "Our trains are deliberately dirty" and "Our trains are deliberately late", but
5907-400: Is subject–verb–object (SVO). However, Hungarian is a topic-prominent language , and so has a word order that depends not only on syntax but also on the topic–comment structure of the sentence (for example, what aspect is assumed to be known and what is emphasized). A Hungarian sentence generally has the following order: topic, comment (or focus), verb and the rest. The topic shows that
6086-455: Is agreement [in this issue], but there is no co-operation". Gyurcsány argued in September 2016, that the government considers the referendum as an "early parliamentary election". He added, "there is no governance for years" and the cabinet intends to hide the existing economic difficulties under the migrant issue and the quota referendum campaign. According to Gyurcsány, the Fidesz leads Hungary to
6265-507: Is also spoken by Hungarian diaspora communities worldwide, especially in North America (particularly the United States and Canada ) and Israel . With 14 million speakers, it is the Uralic family's largest member by number of speakers. Hungarian is a member of the Uralic language family . Linguistic connections between Hungarian and other Uralic languages were noticed in the 1670s, and
6444-579: Is always on the first syllable of a word, as in Finnish and the neighbouring Slovak and Czech . There is a secondary stress on other syllables in compounds: viszontlátásra ("goodbye") is pronounced /ˈvisontˌlaːtaːʃrɒ/ . Elongated vowels in non-initial syllables may seem to be stressed to an English-speaker, as length and stress correlate in English. Hungarian is an agglutinative language . It uses various affixes , mainly suffixes but also some prefixes and
6623-549: Is expressed by a possessive suffix on the possessed object, rather than the possessor as in English (Peter's apple becomes Péter almája , literally 'Peter apple-his'). Noun plurals are formed with –k ( az almák 'the apples'), but after a numeral, the singular is used ( két alma 'two apples', literally 'two apple'; not *két almák ). Unlike English, Hungarian uses case suffixes and nearly always postpositions instead of prepositions. There are two types of articles in Hungarian, definite and indefinite, which roughly correspond to
6802-796: Is in the message. The act of boycott is only the passive rejection of the forced referendum", while casting invalid votes is more effective as it cannot be misinterpreted. In a declaration issued on 14 September, 22 NGOs, including TASZ, the Helsinki Committee, the Eötvös Károly Institute, the Methodist Hungarian Evangelical Fellowship , the Migration Aid and the Belletrist Association jointly announced their support for casting invalid votes, referring to
6981-442: Is marked with boldface. Hungarian has a four-tiered system for expressing levels of politeness. From highest to lowest: The four-tiered system has somewhat been eroded due to the recent expansion of " tegeződés " and " önözés ". Some anomalies emerged with the arrival of multinational companies who have addressed their customers in the te (least polite) form right from the beginning of their presence in Hungary. A typical example
7160-554: Is more likely to see a UFO than a refugee in his lifetime" and "Did you know? During the Olympics , the biggest danger to Hungarian participants came from foreign competitors". Party leader Gergely Kovács told BBC News that "[...] What we can do is appeal to the millions in Hungary who are upset by the government campaign. We want them to know they are not alone". Thus the party asked the people to cast invalid ballots. In an interview by The Budapest Times on 17 September 2016, after
7339-613: Is officially recognized as a minority or regional language in Austria , Croatia , Romania , Zakarpattia in Ukraine , and Slovakia . In Romania it is a recognized minority language used at local level in communes, towns and municipalities with an ethnic Hungarian population of over 20%. The dialects of Hungarian identified by Ethnologue are: Alföld, West Danube, Danube-Tisza, King's Pass Hungarian, Northeast Hungarian, Northwest Hungarian, Székely and West Hungarian. These dialects are, for
Hungarian Two-Tailed Dog Party - Misplaced Pages Continue
7518-469: Is often a sneaking matter". The Democratic Coalition published its own campaign song in September 2016, the chorus was "Do not say no, do not say yes, the answer does not mean anything, if the question is liar". One day before the September 2016 Budapest explosion , board member György Kakuk called on the government not to perform any simulated bomb attack in order to increasing willingness to vote. He compared
7697-745: Is on good terms with another joke party, the Fourth Way , which is led by two birds. However, there are some disagreements between them, since Fourth Way plans to abolish bird flu , which is opposed by the Two-tailed Dog Party on the principle of viral rights. On 20 June 2009, the MKKP held a "general" protest with approximately three hundred participants in front of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) to demand "Tomorrow should be yesterday!", "Look stupid!" and "Disband!" etc., with
7876-477: Is one of the biggest political swindles in recent decades". He added, the government, beside their money, is trying to steal people's "soul" and "benevolence" too. Formerly the Together said "Orbán's populist politics is resulting a sliding and unthrifty Hungary". According to the party, the only alternative are the "peace and European cooperation". The PM considered the referendum as a "gigantic scam" which serves only
8055-469: Is ready to take part in the public debate, suggesting other issues beside the quota referendum. Eventually, due to the refusal and absence of the Prime Minister, there has been no debate, similarly to the last two parliamentary elections. The number of valid votes cast was required to be equivalent to 50% of the registered voters for the referendum to be valid. Overall turnout was 44.04%, although without
8234-399: Is sometimes described as having free word order, different word orders are generally not interchangeable, and the neutral order is not always correct to use. The intonation is also different with different topic-comment structures. The topic usually has a rising intonation, the focus having a falling intonation. In the following examples, the topic is marked with italics, and the focus (comment)
8413-475: Is the Funeral Sermon and Prayer , which dates to the 1190s. Although the orthography of these early texts differed considerably from that used today, contemporary Hungarians can still understand a great deal of the reconstructed spoken language, despite changes in grammar and vocabulary. A more extensive body of Hungarian literature arose after 1300. The earliest known example of Hungarian religious poetry
8592-693: Is the 14th-century Lamentations of Mary . The first Bible translation was the Hussite Bible in the 1430s. The standard language lost its diphthongs , and several postpositions transformed into suffixes , including reá "onto" (the phrase utu rea "onto the way" found in the 1055 text would later become út ra ). There were also changes in the system of vowel harmony . At one time, Hungarian used six verb tenses , while today only two or three are used. In 1533, Kraków printer Benedek Komjáti published Letters of St. Paul in Hungarian (modern orthography: A Szent Pál levelei magyar nyelven ),
8771-523: Is the Swedish furniture shop IKEA , whose web site and other publications address the customers in te form. When a news site asked IKEA—using the te form—why they address their customers this way, IKEA's PR Manager explained in his answer—using the ön form—that their way of communication reflects IKEA's open-mindedness and the Swedish culture. However IKEA in France uses the polite ( vous ) form. Another example
8950-485: Is the communication of Yettel Hungary (earlier Telenor, a mobile network operator) towards its customers. Yettel chose to communicate towards business customers in the polite ön form while all other customers are addressed in the less polite te form. During the first early phase of Hungarian language reforms (late 18th and early 19th centuries) more than ten thousand words were coined, several thousand of which are still actively used today (see also Ferenc Kazinczy ,
9129-407: Is unmarked ( az alma 'the apple') and, for example, the accusative is marked with the suffix –t ( az almát '[I eat] the apple'). Half of the cases express a combination of the source-location-target and surface-inside-proximity ternary distinctions (three times three cases); there is a separate case ending – ból / –ből meaning a combination of source and insideness: 'from inside of'. Possession
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#17330859551489308-739: The Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (VMSZ), the Hungarian National Self-Governing Community of Pomurje (MMÖNK), the Hungarian Cultural Federation of Transcarpathia (KMKSZ), and others. István Pásztor , the president of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians emphasized that "there is no contradiction" between the VMSZ's campaign in Hungary and the position of the Serbian government. He said "The Vojvodina Hungarians are part of
9487-447: The Brexit deal, accusing Orbán of "betrayal". Government spokesperson Zoltán Kovács responded that the "opposition misinterprets the final document". Jobbik agreed with the intention of referendum, but would have preferred amending the Hungarian constitution to limit immigration. After President Áder announced the referendum date on 5 July 2016, Jobbik spokesman Ádám Mirkóczki stated that
9666-691: The European Commission on 25 February, Natasha Bertaud said the executive body failed to understand "how [the referendum] would fit into the decision-making process which was agreed to by all member states, including Hungary, under EU treaties ". Later that day, Dimitris Avramopoulos , the EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship in the Juncker Commission , said the referendum "belongs to Hungary's internal affairs", but added "the isolated initiatives do not lead anywhere. At
9845-737: The Faith Church ; Imre Kozma , the president of the Hungarian Charity Service of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta ; Slomó Köves , Executive Rabbi of the Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation; and Sándor Szenczy, the president of the Hungarian Baptist Aid. Gyula Márfi , Archbishop of Veszprém ; Béla Balás, Bishop of Kaposvár ; and Miklós Beer , Bishop of Vác also expressed opposition to
10024-498: The Justice and Home Affairs Council , approved a plan to relocate 120,000 asylum seekers over two years from the "frontline" states Italy , Greece and Hungary to all other EU countries, while Hungary would have to accept 1,294 refugees from other member states. However, Hungary voted against the relocation plan, so its 54,000 asylum seekers were not taken into consideration, with that number relocated to Italy and Greece instead. Following
10203-614: The Romanian lexicon is of Hungarian origin. In the 21st century, studies support an origin of the Uralic languages, including early Hungarian, in eastern or central Siberia , somewhere between the Ob and Yenisei rivers or near the Sayan mountains in the Russian – Mongolian border region. A 2019 study based on genetics, archaeology and linguistics, found that early Uralic speakers arrived in Europe from
10382-832: The Volga River and the Ural Mountains . The Onoğurs (and Bulgars ) later had a great influence on the language, especially between the 5th and 9th centuries. This layer of Turkic loans is large and varied (e.g. szó ' word ' , from Turkic ; and daru ' crane ' , from the related Permic languages ), and includes words borrowed from Oghur Turkic ; e.g. borjú ' calf ' (cf. Chuvash păru , părăv vs. Turkish buzağı ); dél 'noon; south' (cf. Chuvash tĕl vs. Turkish dial. düš ). Many words related to agriculture, state administration and even family relationships show evidence of such backgrounds. Hungarian syntax and grammar were not influenced in
10561-409: The ozone hole , and creation of new species to replace extinct species. The party also proposed establishing trade relations with extraterrestrial life forms, and opening a Hungarian restaurant on Mars to improve the country's image. The party spent most of 2013 trying to finish the official registration process, which new election law made compulsory, so it could start its campaign. The registration
10740-517: The "compulsory quota system was accepted via the defrauding of four member states – Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania [countries which voted against the relocation plan on 22 September 2015]". During an interview in TV2 on 30 September, he said "migration is an issue about which if we make a mistake, we will not be able to correct it anymore". Orbán published a lengthy essay to Magyar Idők on 1 October, writing that "We, Hungarians find ourselves in
10919-447: The "financial resources of the country should not be given to the migrants, those who do not respect the law, wade across borders, and yet nothing do nothing good for them, but only demand". The two Fidesz-member deputy mayors of Csepel told their community that if the Hungarian government lost this fight against the EU, residents of 1,475 municipal apartments would be evicted from their homes to make way for migrants. As recommended by
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#173308595514811098-522: The 10,331 polling stations. As an Index.hu analysis noted, the passivity of Jobbik and LMP in this respect is understandable: the previous one is campaigning for "no" votes, in line with the Fidesz–KDNP government, while the latter party remained disinterested (neutral) and boycotted the whole procedure. By comparison, as article author Szabolcs Dull noted, the low number of the MSZP observers raises many questions. The number of delegates by counties showed that
11277-574: The 2006 elections. The party platform promises eternal life, world peace, a one-day workweek, two sunsets a day (in assorted colours), lower gravity , free beer, and low taxes. Other electoral pledges have included building a mountain on the Great Hungarian Plain . Party election posters were mostly in Szeged and featuring the candidate István Nagy, who is a two-tailed dog, with slogans such as "He's so cute, surely he isn't going to steal". The party
11456-872: The 2011 Hungarian census, 9,896,333 people (99.6% of the total population) speak Hungarian, of whom 9,827,875 people (98.9%) speak it as a first language, while 68,458 people (0.7%) speak it as a second language . About 2.2 million speakers live in other areas that were part of the Kingdom of Hungary before the Treaty of Trianon (1920). Of these, the largest group lives in Transylvania , the western half of present-day Romania , where there are approximately 1.25 million Hungarians . There are large Hungarian communities also in Slovakia , Serbia and Ukraine , and Hungarians can also be found in Austria , Croatia , and Slovenia , as well as about
11635-416: The 5% threshold. The party is expected to participate in the 2024 European parliament election and the simultaneously held 2024 local elections . In District 12 of Budapest , party leader Gergely Kovács won 61% of the first preference votes in a ranked-choice opposition primary, the first the party has joined. Other main opposition parties are now expected not to field a candidate for mayor and half of
11814-459: The Deputy Minister of the prime minister's Cabinet Office, gave an interview to Origo.hu on the eve of referendum, where he said "if 3 million votes were enough to join the European Union [in the 2003 referendum], now, roughly 3 million votes should be enough to say No to the enforced settlement system". During the referendum, a majority of Hungarians expressed support for the government policy on
11993-539: The European Union ("Huxit"). Reuters wrote in July 2016 that "Hungary's migrant referendum shows Europe's post- Brexit challenge". After ambiguous statements by government member János Lázár and spokesperson Zoltán Kovács , Democratic Coalition-member Csaba Molnár accused that the "Orbán Cabinet, through the referendum, will request authorization [from the people] to leave the European Union". In contrast, Index.hu argued that Lázár and Kovács's statements were [part] of
12172-405: The European Union's migrant relocation plans was held in Hungary on 2 October 2016. The referendum was initiated by the government , under the provision of article 8 of the new constitution of 2012. It was commonly referred to as the kvótanépszavazás or kvótareferendum ("quota referendum") in the Hungarian media. While an overwhelming majority of voters rejected the EU's migrant quotas,
12351-404: The European Union. The MLP's foreign policy advisor István Szent-Iványi said in August 2016 that the support of "yes" votes "is the only way to stand up for European values, Hungary's belonging to Europe and European solidarity", and criticized the stances of left-wing parties. He claimed that the EU migrant quota system in fact is a "non-existent legal concept", and argued that the referendum has
12530-489: The Fidesz government in 2013. However the party was unable to collect the required amount of 200,000 signatures. Albeit MSZP decided to stay away from the quota referendum, the party still avoided the use of the word "boycott" to distinguish itself from the Democratic Coalition (DK). The Socialist Party was not able to convey a unified political message and position to its supporters. Former party leader László Kovács urged to vote invalidly to "vote yes for our country remain
12709-401: The Finno-Ugric hypothesis was concluded the sounder of the two, mainly based on work by the German linguist Josef Budenz . Hungarians did, in fact, absorb some Turkic influences during several centuries of cohabitation. The influence on Hungarians was mainly from the Turkic Oghur speakers such as Sabirs , Bulgars of Atil , Kabars and Khazars . The Oghur tribes are often connected with
12888-426: The Hungarian lexemes collected from technical texts, dialects etc. would total up to 1,000,000 words. Parts of the lexicon can be organized using word-bushes (see an example on the right). The words in these bushes share a common root, are related through inflection, derivation and compounding, and are usually broadly related in meaning. 2016 Hungarian migrant quota referendum A referendum related to
13067-524: The Hungarian language contains 75,000 words, and the Comprehensive Dictionary of Hungarian Language (to be published in 18 volumes in the next twenty years) is planned to contain 110,000 words. The default Hungarian lexicon is usually estimated to comprise 60,000 to 100,000 words. (Independently of specific languages, speakers actively use at most 10,000 to 20,000 words, with an average intellectual using 25,000 to 30,000 words. ) However, all
13246-505: The Hungarians whose exoethnonym is usually derived from Onogurs (> (H)ungars), a Turkic tribal confederation . The similarity between customs of Hungarians and the Chuvash people , the only surviving member of the Oghur tribes, is visible. For example, the Hungarians appear to have learned animal husbandry techniques from the Oghur speaking Chuvash people (or historically Suvar people ), as
13425-506: The Jobbik formerly had proposed a constitutional amendment without political risks. He said his party "always rejected the quota system, that's why I am angry with you [Orbán] and that's why I demand your resignation". He argued Orbán need to step down, as David Cameron did it following the Brexit referendum, "as is the norm in European politics". Hungarian Socialist Party leader Gyula Molnár stated
13604-699: The Liberal Party's campaign for "Yes" votes, because, as they argued, "participation legitimizes an illegitimate and unconstitutional referendum" and brought the vote total closer to the threshold of validity. Fodor responded that "[A] Yes vote...would mean that Hungary is a constructive member of the European Union ready to share the burden of the refugee crisis facing Europe. Sitting at home...is simply cowardly". Democratic Coalition chairman and former Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány said in an interview at ATV that Fidesz caucus leader Lajos Kósa promised budgetary support to opposition parties (without specific mention of
13783-594: The Liberals) which campaigned for "Yes" votes (the purpose of which would be to raise overall participation to the 50% of the electorate required for such a referendum to be legally valid). The Liberal Party denied this in a press release in September 2016. According to a public interest disclosure by the prime minister's Cabinet Office in late September 2016, the Fidesz–KDNP government had spent at least HUF 11.3 billion (short-scale; €34 million) on an "information campaign" about migration policy since December 2015. According to
13962-521: The MKKP restarted its voluntary donation campaign to fund purchase of new posters. The National Election Committee (NVB) said that vandalism of MKKP posters in Szombathely was a violation of Hungarian election law, but declared that the perpetrators could not be identified. On 22 September, a teenage activist for the MKKP was attacked by a taxi driver in Szentendre after the boy told him that damaging during
14141-901: The National Alliance of Hungarian Farmers (Magosz), the Civil Unity Forum (CÖF), the Smallholders' Civic Association (KPE), the Batthyány Society of Professors (PBK), the Association of Christian Intellectuals (KÉSZ), the National Federation of Workers' Councils (MOSZ), the Hungarian Civil Cooperation Association (MPEE) and the Club of Young Families (Ficsak), also aided the campaign with their own funds. During
14320-523: The National Assembly was indispensable to the resettlement of migrants to Hungary, but also demanded referendums on the issues of Sunday shopping (the third Orbán Government banned shops from opening on Sundays from 15 March 2015) and the new land law. The Democratic Coalition (DK) stated that, beside the migrant quota system, the government should hold referendums on three additional topics (Sunday shopping, financing of health care and dissolution of
14499-473: The Olympics, the biggest danger to Hungarian participants came from foreign competitors". Party leader Gergely Kovács told BBC News that "... What we can do is appeal to the millions in Hungary who are upset by the government campaign. We want them to know they are not alone". The party asked people to cast invalid ballots in the referendum. Eventually, 6% of the voters cast a spoiled ballot. Shortly before
14678-553: The Prime Minister "scored an own goal." He argued EU leaders will only consider the invalid nature of the referendum, ignoring the overwhelming superiority of "No" votes. On 3 October, Vona told Orbán in the parliamentary plenary session that the government had weakened Hungary's positions in Brussels on the issue of quota system with the failed referendum. According to him, Orbán used this undoubtedly national vital question for his own domestic political and party communication purposes, while
14857-671: The Samoyed branch of the family, but that is now frequently questioned. The name of Hungary could be a result of regular sound changes of Ungrian/Ugrian , and the fact that the Eastern Slavs referred to Hungarians as Ǫgry/Ǫgrove (sg. Ǫgrinŭ ) seemed to confirm that. Current literature favors the hypothesis that it comes from the name of the Turkic tribe Onoğur (which means ' ten arrows ' or ' ten tribes ' ). There are numerous regular sound correspondences between Hungarian and
15036-448: The Ugric and Finnic languages is greater, but the correspondences are also regular. The traditional view holds that the Hungarian language diverged from its Ugric relatives in the first half of the 1st millennium BC, in western Siberia east of the southern Urals . In Hungarian, Iranian loanwords date back to the time immediately following the breakup of Ugric and probably span well over
15215-439: The approval of the National Assembly? A more literal translation into English, mirroring the Hungarian wording and inflections more closely: Do you want the European Union to be able to mandate the obligatory resettlement of non-Hungarian citizens into Hungary even without the approval of the National Assembly? Bold : parties with parliamentary representation at the time of the referendum The Hungarian Liberal Party (MLP)
15394-489: The asylum-seekers and refugees increased dramatically due to the government campaign. Publicus Intézet found in September 2016 that while two-thirds of respondents expressed tolerance for migrants the previous year, only one-third did so presently. Sociologist Endre Sik, head of the Tárki public opinion research institute, said in the summer of 2016 that "racism and xenophobia in Hungary has reached its peak since 1990". 70 percent of
15573-481: The battle against Brussels". During a public forum, government member János Lázár argued "in that places where the overwhelming majority of the population adopted an obstructive attitude against quotas in the referendum, migrants can not be settled because the government wants to avoid a confrontation. However, where the voters testify their disinterest, [the government will interpret this as] disinterest [whether] migrants arrive there or not". Many considered these remarks
15752-621: The campaign period is illegal. Besides the Two-tailed Dog Party, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ) and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee also encouraged casting invalid votes. According to the TASZ, the government was "abusing" the referendum system, and its campaign was "fundamentally incompatible with a human rights approach". The Hungarian Helsinki Committee argued in favor of invalid votes that "the difference
15931-415: The campaign, public spaces and the media were inundated by large billboards with anti-immigrant messages, such as "Did you know? More than 300 people were killed in terrorist attacks in Europe since the start of the migrant crisis", "Did you know? The Paris terrorist attacks were carried out by immigrants", "Did you know? 1,5 million illegal immigrants arrived to Europe in 2015", "Did you know? Brussels wants
16110-409: The centralized education system), without which they would call for a boycott. Together announced a demonstration against the referendum and called on the government not to "manipulate public opinion with phony, diversionary campaigns". Dialogue for Hungary (PM) called the government's referendum plan "legal nonsense" and a "desperate attempt to distract". The Hungarian Liberal Party (MLP) described
16289-498: The common European solution, actively participated in the MLP's campaign. In a video message, he said the Hungarian people was forced to "choose between Hungary and Europe". He urged the voters to "say Yes to Europe, and say Yes to the European future of Hungary!" Former ALDE Party President Graham Watson also expressed his support to the Liberal Party's quota campaign. Several journalists, bloggers and other opposition parties criticized
16468-469: The communication and policy goals of Fidesz. The party added "if Hungary accepts EU aids and sums, must be involved too in the solution of common problems". The PM intended to organize a protest to the day of the referendum, but after a legal complaint by Fidesz MP Gergely Gulyás , the National Election Committee (NVB) found it unlawful, as according to the election law, a rally cannot hold on
16647-399: The country. The Democratic Coalition (DK) stated immediately after Orbán's announcement that the party will boycott the referendum. According to Népszabadság , party leaders Gyula Molnár (MSZP) and Ferenc Gyurcsány (DK) agreed that both parties will use the same slogan: "Stay at home, Stay in Europe!". However Socialist spokesperson István Nyakó nuanced the journal's information: "There
16826-415: The courts ruled in his favor. In 2009 he created a parody of the website Pecs2010.hu (the official site of Pécs as Cultural Capital of Europe in 2010), for which he was threatened with legal action, but the owners of the original site backed down after the case got publicity. * Limit for parties to join the National Assembly in Hungary is 5 % of popular votes Hungarian language It
17005-531: The day of the referendum. As a result, the party, alongside MSZP, which also canceled its planned rally named "Free Europe Day" after the decision, protested in front of the NVI headquarters because of its presumptive pro-government political decisions. Co-leader Karácsony noted how ironic that International Day of Non-Violence and Gandhi Jayanti are observed on October 2, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi . After that Gergely Karácsony and MSZP chairman Gyula Molnár covered
17184-447: The decision of the Curia, based on the argument that publishing ballot papers anonymously did not violate the secrecy of the voting, although it was a misuse of the ballot papers. The party officially took part in the 2018 parliamentary elections and got 1.73% of the total vote, but no seats. The party participated in the 2019 European Parliament election . Despite an increase to 2.62% of
17363-753: The decision on relocations. In March 2016, Schulz called the referendum plan "absurd" and a "despicable idea". In May 2016, four major NGOs (the Hungarian Helsinki Committee , the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union , the Eötvös Károly Institute, and Political Capital) argued that the Constitution of Hungary did not allow such a referendum, and that the Supreme Court erred in allowing it. Whereas, according to Article 8 (2): "National referendums may be held about any matter falling within
17542-607: The decision, Hungary and Slovakia took legal action over EU's mandatory migrant quotas at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg . On 24 February 2016, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced that the Hungarian government would hold a referendum on whether to accept the European Union's proposed mandatory quotas for relocating migrants. He also said it is "no secret that the Hungarian government [rejects] migrant quotas" and that it would be campaigning for "no" votes. Orbán argued
17721-551: The demonstration, but they failed, when DK supporters sang Himnusz . Two other minor left-wing parliamentary parties, the Together (Együtt) and the Dialogue for Hungary (PM), and a liberal conservative extra-parliamentary force, the Modern Hungary Movement (MoMa) announced to campaign jointly and urged their voters to stay away from the referendum. On 1 September, the party leaders presented their joint poster which showed
17900-487: The district seats for councilors are to be nominated exclusively by the Two-Tailed Dog Party, plus 2 seats. Kovács won the mayorship with 54% of the votes, and the party won 10 out of the 18 seats in the district council. The party has been a strong advocate of freedom of expression and artistic license. This position is expressed by political slogans on walls and pasting posters in Szeged. The party's main activity
18079-427: The domestic and foreign press to ask questions of the Prime Minister. In the following days, pro-government media (for instance, M1 state television, Magyar Idők , Magyar Hírlap , Origo.hu, 888.hu or Riposzt) avoided the "invalid" phrase too and did not refer the relatively low turnout, and instead, they highlighted the fact that 98% of participants voted against the admission of refugees to Hungary. Csaba Dömötör,
18258-461: The east, specifically from eastern Siberia. Hungarian historian and archaeologist Gyula László claims that geological data from pollen analysis seems to contradict the placing of the ancient Hungarian homeland near the Urals. Today, the consensus among linguists is that Hungarian is a member of the Uralic family of languages. The classification of Hungarian as a Uralic/Finno-Ugric rather than
18437-404: The election system, every parties with parliamentary group (therefore Fidesz, MSZP, Jobbik, KDNP and LMP) were allowed to register and send a maximum of two delegates to each committee until the deadline of 22 September 2016. The number of delegates were shared in the following way: According to these figures, opposition parties (MSZP, Jobbik and LMP) have sent delegates to less than 40 percent of
18616-489: The election. In June 2015, the ruling Third Orbán Government launched an anti-immigrant poster campaign during the intensifying European migrant crisis , with slogans such as "If you come to Hungary, you cannot take the Hungarians' jobs away!". In response, the Two-tailed Dog Party and the Vastagbőr blog ("Thick Skin") jointly called for an "anti-anti-immigration campaign", and collected more than 33 million HUF (ten times
18795-630: The equivalents in English. Adjectives precede nouns ( a piros alma 'the red apple') and have three degrees: positive ( piros 'red'), comparative ( pirosabb 'redder') and superlative ( a legpirosabb 'the reddest'). If the noun takes the plural or a case, an attributive adjective is invariable: a piros almák 'the red apples'. However, a predicative adjective agrees with the noun: az almák piros ak 'the apples are red'. Adjectives by themselves can behave as nouns (and so can take case suffixes): Melyik almát kéred? – A piros at . 'Which apple would you like? – The red one'. The neutral word order
18974-432: The eventual success to its own benefit. They also quoted 17th-century poet Miklós Zrínyi 's famous motto: "Do not hurt the Hungarians!" The Hungarian Justice and Life Party (MIÉP) reminded the public that they were the only parliamentary party which had opposed the referendum on joining the EU in 2003 . The MIÉP criticized the Two-tailed Dog Party's counter-campaign and also tried to mock its satirical slogans. None of
19153-503: The example of German football player Mesut Özil , who he said did not sing Deutschlandlied before matches. Later the German Football Association rejected Kövér's claims. Member of Parliament János Pócs recalled that unidentified Muslim migrants harassed his daughter via Facebook . The mayor of Jászberény, Tamás Szabó, told the town's Romani citizens that if Jászberény is forced to settle immigrants, "this will lead to
19332-568: The expected amount) from supporters to set up around 800 billboards parodying those of the government, with slogans in Hungarian and English such as "Sorry about our Prime Minister" and "Feel free to come to Hungary, we already work in England!". On 4 February 2016, Medián's poll for the first time registered support for the Hungarian Two-tailed Dog Party, with 1% of the population expressing support. The Hungarian Two-tailed Dog Party
19511-671: The family itself was established in 1717. Hungarian has traditionally been assigned to the Ugric branch along with the Mansi and Khanty languages of western Siberia ( Khanty–Mansia region of North Asia ), but it is no longer clear that it is a valid group. When the Samoyed languages were determined to be part of the family, it was thought at first that Finnic and Ugric (the most divergent branches within Finno-Ugric) were closer to each other than to
19690-414: The fate of future generations", saying that "I love this country, and I do not want to see anyone change it under orders from outside". In response to the opposition's endorsement of boycott, he said that this was "an issue which far outstrips party loyalty...This is the second time that the Hungarian left has been unable to rise above self-interest – as I think that the earlier referendum on dual citizenship
19869-419: The first Hungarian-language book set in movable type . By the 17th century, the language already closely resembled its present-day form, although two of the past tenses remained in use. German, Italian and French loans also began to appear. Further Turkish words were borrowed during the period of Ottoman rule (1541 to 1699). In the 19th century, a group of writers, most notably Ferenc Kazinczy , spearheaded
20048-444: The forced resettling of a city's worth of illegal immigrants into Hungary", "Did you know? Almost one million immigrants want to come to Europe from Libya alone?" and "Did you know? Since the start of the immigration crisis, sexual harassment of women has increased in Europe?". Several critics described these slogans as " xenophobic " and "racist". Emma Graham-Harrison, a columnist for The Guardian , wrote on 17 September 2016 that
20227-406: The functions and powers of the National Assembly", Article 8 (3) states: "No national referendum may be held on [...] any obligation arising from international treaties". According to critics, the legal validity of the question as formulated was doubtful, given the primacy of EU law over national law. Under that doctrine, laid down by the European Court of Justice as in the 1964 Costa v ENEL case,
20406-420: The future of our children and grandchildren". As he argued, "92% of those who voted in a referendum [...] said, they do not agree with Brussels' intention [on migration quotas]". He said the referendum result will be a "strong enough weapon at Brussels", and urged EU policymakers to take note the result and the "Hungarians' will". "Brussels or Budapest, this was the question, and we decided that only Budapest enjoys
20585-523: The government campaign as "senseless" and "inhuman". István László Mészáros, a former SZDSZ MP, responded by announcing his resignation from the Helsinki Committee because the NGO had "entered into party politics" and "as an organization, which [was] once dedicated to the values of democracy and the rights of citizens...is campaigning against a referendum, one of the most important institutions of democracy". The Helsinki Committee responded that "the government makes
20764-407: The government campaign was characterized by "violent language" and "bitterly contested claims" (including about alleged " no-go zones " throughout Western Europe). A Hungarian Muslim woman, quoted by Al Jazeera , said "I'm starting to feel that my own homeland is repudiating me". John Dalhuisen, director at Amnesty International (AI), said that "Prime Minister Orbán has replaced the rule of law with
20943-539: The government's "hate campaign" to pre-1945 era. The party held a peaceful demonstration in front of the Hungarian Parliament Building on 1 October, when thousands of DK sympathizers joined their hands to form a human chain around the building. Gyurcsány said during the event that the government is trying to "steal the greater part of the honesty of Hungary, however the democratic opposition will be able to prevent that". Far-right elements sought to prevent
21122-528: The government's anti-immigrant messages and phrases. The party spent €100,000 (the most of all the opposition parties) of voluntary donations from 4,000 people on their posters with satirical slogans, such as "Did you know there's a war in Syria ?", "Did you know one million Hungarians want to emigrate to Europe ?", "Did you know? The perpetrators in most corruption cases are politicians", "Did you know? A tree may fall on your head?", "Did you know? The average Hungarian
21301-418: The government, approximately 2,000 of the 3,200 local authorities adopted resolutions against migrant resettlement quotas until the end of September 2016. In several places (such as Gödöllő and Tapolca ), local Fidesz politicians warned their communities that places which do not make a clear stand against the "forced resettlement quota" are more likely to receive migrants for settlement if the government "loses
21480-413: The importance of voting. On 22 September, he said to Origo.hu that "if the referendum is valid and conclusive, its consequences are of a different nature, compared to a more stunted one". He added that "[opposing] the forced quota is the cause of all of the 3,200 local governments" and also called 2 October "3,200 local referendums at the same time". He expressed certainty that the referendum would "determine
21659-464: The invalid referendum has become in fact a "very expensive opinion poll" and added, "things will return to normal" on 3 October after a "shameful, deceitful and unlawful hate campaign". He said the invalid outcome of the referendum proved that "it is possible to defeat the Fidesz government and Viktor Orbán at the ballot box." As a result, he suggested a cooperation of "democratic opposition" parties to nominate single joint candidate in each constituency for
21838-405: The invalid vote, it was 41.32%. Even after publication of exit polls at 7 PM, Fidesz MP Gergely Gulyás evaluated the migrant quota referendum as "an overwhelming victory", regardless of the low turnout. He said "we consider the decision of the voters as compulsory on our part", and called the probably legally invalid referendum "valid in political terms". He emphasized that more people voted against
22017-477: The language holds official status nationally in Hungary and regionally in Romania , Slovakia , Serbia , Austria and Slovenia . In 2014 The proportion of Transylvanian students studying Hungarian exceeded the proportion of Hungarian students, which shows that the effects of Romanianization are slowly getting reversed and regaining popularity. The Dictate of Trianon resulted in a high proportion of Hungarians in
22196-436: The language were utilized. This movement produced more than ten thousand words, most of which are used actively today. The 19th and 20th centuries saw further standardization of the language, and differences between mutually comprehensible dialects gradually diminished. In 1920, Hungary signed the Treaty of Trianon , losing 71 percent of its territory and one-third of the ethnic Hungarian population along with it. Today,
22375-415: The leadership of Germany's Angela Merkel , who champions the relocation scheme". Nick Thorpe , Budapest correspondent of BBC News argued that the main purpose of the referendum was that Orbán "wants to play a bigger role on the European stage, as a 'champion of the concerns of ordinary Europeans' against the actions of 'an unelected, liberal elite', as interpreted by the premier himself". Thorpe added that
22554-489: The leading figure of the Hungarian language reforms.) Kazinczy's chief goal was to replace existing words of German and Latin origins with newly created Hungarian words. As a result, Kazinczy and his later followers (the reformers) significantly reduced the formerly high ratio of words of Latin and German origins in the Hungarian language, which were related to social sciences, natural sciences, politics and economics, institutional names, fashion etc. Giving an accurate estimate for
22733-709: The left-wing opposition party appointed zero delegates in Győr-Moson-Sopron County (450 polling committees), but the MSZP remained passive in several other counties too. Previously, the Socialist Party warned of probable "fraud" and "lawlessness" among the election committees, and agreed with four other parties (DK, Együtt, PM and MoMa, none of them have parliamentary caucus) to send observers jointly under MSZP banner. According to unconfirmed reports, voluntary application of DK activists as delegates were refused by local MSZP officials in some counties, because they did not want to bother with administrative obligations during
22912-447: The liberal portal 444.hu, the government contracted for this with numerous advertising agencies owned by Fidesz-backed entrepreneurs (for instance, Csaba Csetényi, István Garancsi and Andrew G. Vajna ). The government spent that money on advertising through the following: radio stations with national coverage (HUF 391.4 million), websites (HUF 524.7 million), newspapers (HUF 717.5 million), and TV channels (HUF 2.2 billion). As announced at
23091-416: The local election turnout, as voters could check their signature in the committees' report for 90 days after the election. On 23 September 2016, Jobbik leader Gábor Vona challenged Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Socialist chairman Gyula Molnár to a public debate. He justified the move that "party leaders usually confront their point of view before such a significant event in civilized countries". He reminded
23270-573: The mainstream once every thirty years", referring to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 , the removal of Hungary's border fence with Austria in 1989 and the current migration crisis, and asserting that "Hungary is the only EU Member State in which the people are asked on the subject of immigration". He added "Simple mathematical operations can be performed to realize that they [migrants] will win this silent battle – if we do nothing". The radical nationalist Jobbik party welcomed Orbán's plan to hold
23449-652: The major churches issued official statements on the subject of the quota referendum, but numerous prelates and clerics delivered their opinions individually. Metropolitan Péter Fülöp Kocsis , head of the Hungarian Greek Catholic Church openly said that he will vote "No", as did István Bogárdi Szabó, the Clerical President of the Synod of the Reformed Church in Hungary ; Sándor Németh, the senior pastor of
23628-645: The mayor of Szeged, criticized Orbán and said that "the insanity within Fidesz rose to a new level, because they are [seriously claiming] that a simple mayor can agree on resettlement of migrants with the President of the European Parliament. It is so surreal that there are no longer words against it". Tamás Wittinghoff, the mayor of Budaörs , claimed that local governments were "under direct pressure to adopt anti-quota resolutions", as "uncooperative" authorities were being threatened with much less budgetary support from
23807-448: The medium of writing used at the time, wood, is perishable. The Kingdom of Hungary was founded in 1000 by Stephen I . The country became a Western -styled Christian ( Roman Catholic ) state, with Latin script replacing Hungarian runes . The earliest remaining fragments of the language are found in the establishing charter of the abbey of Tihany from 1055, intermingled with Latin text. The first extant text fully written in Hungarian
23986-523: The migration crisis, but such a political gamble may pose significant risks". He stated that if the referendum result were invalid, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán "must resign" as he has "taken personal responsibility for the initiative". Some parties not represented in Parliament also rejected the European Union migrant quota system. Gyula Thürmer , long-time leader of the Hungarian Workers' Party (MMP,
24165-405: The migration issue, he added. Jobbik issued a statement immediately after the end of the voting procedure. Party spokesperson Mirkóczki said Orbán "irresponsibly brought the country into a gamble and [...] he failed." He also called the Fidesz's campaign as "arrogant, insolent and sometimes extortionist." Party leader Gábor Vona said Orbán "revived the quota system" with the invalid referendum and
24344-473: The moment, the unity of the [European] Union and human lives are at stake. [...]". The Dutch EU presidency responded, "Every country has the right to hold referendums". Pasi Rajala, an advisor to Finnish Finance Minister Alexander Stubb sarcastically suggested "Should we have a referendum too? »Do you agree that Finland & others pay Hungary €22bn in structural funds & €3.45bn for rural development?«". Spanish Finance Minister Cristóbal Montoro said that
24523-574: The most part, mutually intelligible . The Hungarian Csángó dialect, which is mentioned but not listed separately by Ethnologue, is spoken primarily in Bacău County in eastern Romania. The Csángó Hungarian group has been largely isolated from other Hungarian people , and therefore preserved features that closely resemble earlier forms of Hungarian. Hungarian has 14 vowel phonemes and 25 consonant phonemes. The vowel phonemes can be grouped as pairs of short and long vowels such as o and ó . Most of
24702-528: The most provocative events was held in Jászberény on 13 September, during which László Kövér , the Speaker of the National Assembly said about the migration crisis that "this is a war in which weapons are not used". Kövér warned that historical examples prove that migrants are tools to deprive the enemy [Hungarians] of their identity prior to enslaving them. He also said Muslims are "impossible to integrate" and cited
24881-548: The name of the country, " Magyarország " (Hungary), pronounced /ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ/ . It is one of three palatal consonants, the others being ⟨ty⟩ and ⟨ny⟩ . Historically a fourth palatalized consonant ʎ existed, still written ⟨ly⟩ . A single 'r' is pronounced as an alveolar tap ( akkora 'of that size'), but a double 'r' is pronounced as an alveolar trill ( akkorra 'by that time'), like in Spanish and Italian . Primary stress
25060-473: The nation, and the quota referendum is a national issue". Since March 2015, the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) tried to initiate a referendum against that new regulations, which banned shops from opening on Sundays. However the intention of the party was prevented on several occasions, sometimes under scandalous circumstances. Thus the government's initiative on quota referendum was considered as
25239-437: The national government. Imre Attila Nagy, the mayor of Győrújfalu , urged local residents to vote "No", because, as he reasoned, their "...tenders for infrastructure investments will [get] preferential treatment by the government, if the...local turnout in the referendum exceeds the county and national average". In the last days of the campaign, Viktor Orbán gave numerous interviews to pro-government media to convince people of
25418-407: The new information for the listeners that may not have been known or that their knowledge must be corrected. For example, "Én vagyok az apád". ('I am your father'. Literally, 'It is I who am your father'.), from the movie The Empire Strikes Back , the pronoun I ( én ) is in the focus and implies that it is new information, and the listener thought that someone else is his father. Although Hungarian
25597-422: The next parliamentary election in order to a unified action against Fidesz. "We will build a coalition from the majority of Hungarians who are losers of society due to this government's activity", he added. In response to Orbán's announcement, he said that any government step to amend the constitution based on an invalid referendum would be "unconstitutional". Molnár also announced the MSZP would initiate setting up
25776-614: The only chance and hope for them". The Politics Can Be Different (LMP) went through a change in leadership in the summer of 2016, after co-president András Schiffer announced his retirement from politics on 31 May. The party decided not to participate in the campaign and did not deliver its position on the issue. Co-president Bernadett Szél clarified the opinion of the party at the Bálványos Free Summer University in July in Băile Tușnad , Romania . She participated in
25955-532: The only consequences of the referendum would be "political", suggesting that through the Visegrád Four , an alternative power bloc could arise based on the "Europe of Nations" concept, in opposition to the mainstream federal vision for Europe primarily supported by France and Germany. Gerald Knaus, chairman of the European Stability Initiative said Orbán was using the referendum as a tool to launch
26134-443: The other Ugric languages. For example, Hungarian /aː/ corresponds to Khanty /o/ in certain positions, and Hungarian /h/ corresponds to Khanty /x/ , while Hungarian final /z/ corresponds to Khanty final /t/ . For example, Hungarian ház [haːz] ' house ' vs. Khanty xot [xot] ' house ' , and Hungarian száz [saːz] ' hundred ' vs. Khanty sot [sot] ' hundred ' . The distance between
26313-478: The pairs have an almost similar pronunciation and vary significantly only in their duration. However, pairs a / á and e / é differ both in closedness and length. Consonant length is also distinctive in Hungarian. Most consonant phonemes can occur as geminates . The sound voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/ , written ⟨gy⟩ , sounds similar to 'd' in British English 'duty'. It occurs in
26492-401: The party launched its counter-campaign, Kovács said that Orbán created a "phenomenon" from a real European problem, and the government "is trying to portray every migrant as a potential terrorist". He mentioned that according to the European Union quota system, Hungary should settle only 1,294 asylum seekers, and he thinks that "there must be at least so much humanity in a country that this is not
26671-460: The party opposed the quota system, as it did "every meaningless dictate from Brussels". But the party maintains its position, he added, that a constitutional amendment would be a "much faster and easier solution", while a referendum without a valid legal outcome would damage enforcement of Hungarian interests. In August, party leader Gábor Vona encouraged Hungarians to vote "No", arguing that "in such national matters, everyone should have to transcend
26850-519: The party participated in the 2018 Hungarian legislative election , it is eligible to receive government funds, which it spends on the " Rózsa Sándor State Fund Wasting Public Program". All of the electoral candidates were called Nagy István ("Stephen Big", Hungarian equivalent of the English John Smith during the 2006 national and local elections. The Two-Tailed Dog Party was not a registered political party until 2014, though it participated in
27029-483: The party political interests". However, he noted, an invalid referendum outcome would be a "weapon in the hands of Brussels" against the Hungarian government's position, adding that "Eastern Europe still has a choice to decide, whether it wants multiculturalism which requires from the majority to give up its European identity..." In September 2016, Vona called the referendum as an "irresponsible decision" in his parliamentary speech. He said: "Fidesz has no interest in solving
27208-432: The party supporters to vote "No" during the event. Nevertheless, both co-leaders of the party (Szél and the newly elected Ákos Hadházy ) decided to boycott the referendum. Szél later said that the government used the quota referendum to divert attention from the much lower wages in Hungary than the European Union average. A total of 10,331 polling stations were established nationwide for the quota referendum. According to
27387-567: The pro-government Fidesz and KDNP lawmakers, as well as the opposition Jobbik MPs, while the majority of left-wing opposition boycotted the plenary session. On 21 June, the Constitutional Court rejected all four appeals against plans to hold the referendum. Finally, President János Áder set 2 October 2016 as the date for the referendum. Immediately following the announcement, opposition parties reacted in different ways. The Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) agreed that approval of
27566-411: The proposition is only for that particular thing or aspect, and it implies that the proposition is not true for some others. For example, in " Az almát János látja". ('It is John who sees the apple'. Literally 'The apple John sees.'), the apple is in the topic, implying that other objects may be seen by not him but other people (the pear may be seen by Peter). The topic part may be empty. The focus shows
27745-424: The public that Orbán did not attend a public political debate since the 2006 parliamentary election , where he was defeated by incumbent premier Gyurcsány according to the majority opinion. Orbán rejected the possibility of a wide-ranging debate again. His press agent, Bertalan Havasi said Orbán "continues to consider the referendum as a national issue, which transcends party interests". Gyula Molnár, however, said he
27924-407: The quota system than voted in favour of the joining the European Union in the 2003 referendum. Deputy Prime Minister and KDNP leader Zsolt Semjén also said the government received mandate from the voters to "defend the country against the compulsory quota". He added "on Christian and humanitarian grounds, there will be caritas towards the migrants and self-defense towards the migratory phenomenon at
28103-459: The quota system would "redraw Hungary's and Europe's ethnic, cultural and religious identity, which no EU organ has the right to do". On 5 May, after examining legal challenges, the Supreme Court ( Kúria ) allowed the referendum to proceed. The National Assembly officially approved the referendum initiated by the government on 10 May. The initiative was approved with 136 votes cast in favour by
28282-521: The quota system, as did the well-known Franciscan friar Csaba Böjte . According to the Heti Válasz' s list, only Rabbi Zoltán Radnóti, the president of the Federation of Jewish Communities (Mazsihisz), said he will boycott the referendum. Archabbot Asztrik Várszegi called the government's campaign "violent" and "propagandistic", and, as he put it, this type of communication "blocks the thinking". This
28461-469: The reduction of social aid to Hungarian citizens", including for local Romani people . Szabó alsó said that the former Socialist mayor of the town had submitted a document to the government which advocated accepting migrants to mitigate the demographic situation in Jászberény, describing this as proof that the left-wing parties supported immigration. In Tápiógyörgye , security policy expert Georg Spöttle said
28640-409: The referendum as an "incorrect step" since, it argued, the European Union has no such legal term as "mandatory resettlement". Politics Can Be Different (LMP) did not take a position on the issue, but also considered the announcement a distraction from "important questions, such as land robbery, or prohibited Sunday shopping". Jobbik welcomed the government's step in a statement. Speaking on behalf of
28819-411: The referendum, the party made a mobile app available for download on its website. The app, called "Vote Invalidly", could be used to take a photo of the spoilt votes and publish it. MKKP received a fine of 832,000 Hungarian forints for releasing the app, because publishing a ballot paper is illegal (even though the app published them anonymously). The fine was later reduced to 100,000 Hungarian forints by
28998-428: The registration procedure. Political Capital analyst Róbert László opined that current situation "significantly increases the risk of fraud". He added, the low number of left-wing opposition delegates indicates "more to the current condition of these parties than do the research polls showing their popularity". In contrast, Szabolcs Dull argued that there is not really a significant possibility of manipulation regarding
29177-703: The respondents to a late September survey by Závecz Research agreed with the statement that "influx of refugees increases the risk of terrorism", and 80 percent of the Hungarian population was completely or moderately opposed to refugees and immigrants. Beside huge billboards, the government's most important campaign method was organization of public forums in the last two weeks to mobilize rural voters, attended by government ministers, state secretaries, members of parliament, pro-government journalists ( Zsolt Bayer ) and security experts (notably György Nógrádi and Georg Spöttle). These forums became infamous for hard-toned speeches and anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim statements. One of
29356-416: The right of decision", he added. Orbán also announced, in accordance with the "politically valid" term, that the government will initiate the seventh amendment of the fundamental law of Hungary as the "appropriate, honest and necessary step is to give legal weight to the will of the Hungarians". In his short speech, Orbán did not mention the invalid outcome of the referendum, and the organizers did not allow for
29535-438: The rule of fear". Government spokesman Zoltán Kovács denied these accusations and called the messages manifestations of "common sense", adding that "people all over the EU sense that something wrong is happening with migration. What is happening is out of control. We need to regain our ability to reinforce law and order at the borders of the European Union". Nevertheless, multiple surveys showed that xenophobia and distrust towards
29714-421: The same time". He pointed out migrants are also "victims", but their problem should be resolved at the source, and not in Europe. In his evening speech at Bálna Centre, Viktor Orbán declared the government's victory despite the low turnout which rendered the referendum invalid. He emphasized Hungary became the first and only EU member state which "managed to hold a referendum on the migrant issue, which determines
29893-461: The share of valid votes was below the 50% required for the result to be considered valid. Hungary was one of the affected countries during the European migrant crisis . On 17 June 2015, Viktor Orbán 's ( third ) Fidesz government announced the construction of a 175-kilometre-long fence along its southern border with Serbia . On 22 September 2015, the European Union's interior ministers, meeting in
30072-536: The sign of the National Election Office with a "Fidesz Election Office" door plate. During a MoMa protest on 25 September, a young speaker said "The House Speaker [László Kövér] and Zsolt Bayer [a Fidesz-ally journalist, he is known for harsh tone articles] are the threat to our culture, and not the Islam ". The Hungarian Two-tailed Dog Party (MKKP) was closely involved in the quota referendum campaign, mocking
30251-414: The surrounding 7 countries, so it is widely spoken or understood. Although host countries are not always considerate of Hungarian language users, communities are strong. The Szeklers , for example, form their own region and have their own national museum, educational institutions, and hospitals. Hungarian has about 13 million native speakers, of whom more than 9.8 million live in Hungary. According to
30430-517: The total word count is difficult, since it is hard to define a "word" in agglutinating languages, due to the existence of affixed words and compound words. To obtain a meaningful definition of compound words, it is necessary to exclude compounds whose meaning is the mere sum of its elements. The largest dictionaries giving translations from Hungarian to another language contain 120,000 words and phrases (but this may include redundant phrases as well, because of translation issues) . The new desk lexicon of
30609-408: The uncertainty among the opposition voters. An Index.hu analysis noted the MSZP has run into difficulty because the majority of its voters positioned themselves against the EU's immigration policy and the quota system. Further increasing the communication confusion, Somogy County branch leader Gábor Harangozó accused the government to intends to settle migrants to municipal accommodations throughout
30788-515: The votes, it did not win a seat. Its campaign promises included building an overpass above the country for refugees, opening six Nemzeti Dohánybolt stores outside Hungary, introducing mandatory siesta and banning the Eurovision Song Contest . In the 2019 local elections the party ran in four districts of Budapest ( II. , XII. , XIV. , XV. ) where they had elected one council member each. They also formally or informally supported
30967-403: The widespread use of referendums on issues like these may lead to the "death" of the European Union. The following day, Martin Schulz , President of the European Parliament described the Hungarian government's call to referendum as "an ideological decision", one "not warranted by a lack of resources or capacity [for migrants]", because Hungary had to accept only 1,294 asylum seekers according to
31146-407: Was also an issue of national interest". Orbán was interviewed by M1 national channel on 27 September, and said that "We do not allow them [EU institutions] to take away from us the right of exclusive control over the question of who we want to live with here in Hungary and who we don't want to live with", adding that "I love my homeland and I want it to remain just the way it is". He also stated that
31325-621: Was closely involved in the campaign during the October 2016 migrant quota referendum , mocking the government's anti-immigrant messages and phrases. In response to government posters which read "Did you know?" followed by claimed facts about immigration, the party spent €100,000 of voluntary donations from 4,000 people on posters with satirical slogans, such as "Did you know there's a war in Syria?", "Did you know one million Hungarians want to emigrate to Europe?", "Did you know? The perpetrators in most corruption cases are politicians" and "Did you know? During
31504-402: Was rejected in early 2014 on the grounds of the party's "flippancy". In July 2014, the Supreme Court ruled that this was not a valid reason to reject the party, and the registration process should continue. The MKKP was officially registered on 8 September 2014, only 16 minutes before the deadline for nomination of candidates for the 2014 local elections , so the party was unable to participate in
31683-454: Was suspended by the MSZP's ethics committee several days later. In response, Móricz announced that she will not participate in the referendum. On 31 August 2016, the new party chairman Gyula Molnár said "MSZP is ready to support the government in the fight against compulsory resettlement quota if the European Union is indeed planning to take such steps". However, as noted, he considered the referendum without legal consequences. His words caused
31862-420: Was the first referendum since 1989 in which suffrage was extended to Hungarian citizens who do not have a permanent residence in Hungary (see Hungarian diaspora ). As a result, several ethnic Hungarian parties and organizations became involved in the campaign. The Autonomy Council in the Carpathian Basin (KMAT), led by László Tőkés , urged people to participate in the referendum and vote "No". The alliance adopted
32041-521: Was the only political party to openly campaign in favour of the compulsory quota system and asked its supporters to vote "yes" in the referendum. On 1 July 2016, party leader Gábor Fodor wrote an open letter to other opposition party leaders asking them to endorse "yes" votes. He wrote that after Brexit, "Europe lost the birthplace of the modern democracy and the primary representative of the Atlantic values", and Orbán's referendum would be another disaster for
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