Hungary’s opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) on Tuesday launched a signature drive to bar Hungarian citizens who have never lived in the country from voting.

Party leader Ferenc Gyurcsány argued that the voters in question do not bear the consequences of their votes. He said that people who “do not share the everyday life of the country” should not have the right to impact the lives of those who do live in Hungary. He added, however, that DK was not aiming to strip them of their citizenship.

Hunor Kelemen, leader of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ), slammed the initiative as “an utterly flawed, manipulative and hostile step”. It is unacceptable that DK tries to divide Hungarians “for the sake of the two or three mandates coming from Hungarian minorities,” he said.

Kelemen rejected the concept of barring those not paying taxes in Hungary from Hungarian elections. It was “silly” to make ethnic Hungarians responsible for the country’s problems, he said. “We can’t have a two-speed citizenship system. All citizens have to have the right to vote,” he said.

Zsolt Bíró, head of the Hungarian Civic Party (MPP), called it “sad that the Hungarian opposition can find no better cause than fomenting tensions among Hungarians and yet again turning Hungarian minorities into campaign material”. Ethnic Hungarians’ right to vote in Hungary is more justified now than ever, he said, because apart from the cultural heritage, Hungarian communities in the Carpathian Basin are connected by increasingly strong economic links.

Zsolt Szilágyi, leader of the Hungarian People’ Party in Transylvania (EMNP), called the proposal “ridiculous”, saying that the impact of ethnic Hungarian votes was too little to justify a tax-based distinction in voting rights. The initiative is not surprising, as Gyurcsány “had campaigned against his own nation already as a prime minister”, he said, citing the 2004 referendum on voting rights for ethnic Hungarians.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.

Related articles:
Local Opinion: Gyurcsány Against Non-Resident Voting
DK Launches Signature Drive To Ban Votes From Beyond Border