Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orban faced down calls to resign on Monday and vowed to change his country's constitution in line with a referendum on refugee policy, despite its failure to attract enough voters to be legally valid.
In response to the question of whether the EU should be allowed to relocate foreigners to Hungary without the consent of its parliament, more that 98.3 percent of people who voted on Sunday backed Mr Orban by choosing No.
Turnout was just 43 per cent, however, and when spoiled ballots were taken into account only 40 percent of eligible Hungarians had cast a valid vote – far short of the 50 per cent required to make the result official according to national law.
The outcome highlighted the deep divisions in Hungarian society and politics, with Mr Orban’s allies hailing a crushing win and his critics mocking his failure to secure a valid outcome despite spending lavishly on his No campaign.
"This game is played for goals, and despite the advantage enjoyed by the prime minister and his party , Orban scored a huge own goal," said Gabor Vona, leader of the popular far-right Jobbik party.
“Since yesterday you have become a failed politician... You will not be taken seriously by Brussels bureaucrats,” Mr Vona told a rowdy parliament in Budapest, where Mr Orban was cheered and jeered.
"Brussels will ruthlessly exploit your irresponsibility and mistake," Mr Vona said, before calling on Mr Orban to step down "like David Cameron did" after the Brexit referendum and adding that "the least you could offer is an apology".
“In legal terms Orban is still Hungary’s prime minister, but in political terms it appears he no longer is,” Mr Vona declared.
The leader of the opposition Socialists, Gyula Molnar, called the referendum a "very expensive opinion poll" and denounced the government's "shameful, deceitful and unlawful hate campaign" against refugees.
Mr Orban insisted, however, that his campaign to stop the EU sending refugees to Hungary would now be reinforced by “the will of 3.3 million people”.
“There are some who try to degrade, nullify the will of 3.3 million voters... However, not one single, honest, elected representative shall let this be overridden,” he declared.
The ruling Fidesz party and its Christian Democrat allies “believe the appropriate, honest and necessary step is to give legal weight to the will of the people... Therefore, I am initiating an amendment to the constitution,” Mr Orban added.
He did not explain what the amendment would entail, but it seems certain to enshrine Hungary’s right to reject outside attempts to force it to take in foreign citizens – a change that Jobbik has long advocated.
Mr Orban has made opposition to immigration his key policy, and he is estimated to have spent hundreds of millions of euro on frontier fences to block migrants, massive border security and a lurid No campaign in the media.
Serbia warned on Monday that it would try to seal its borders completely to migrants if countries to the north did the same.
