Hungary to Hold Referendum on Mandatory EU Refugee Quotas on Oct. 2

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Hungary has scheduled a referendum for October 2 on the EU plan to introduce quotas for the relocation of refugees, the office of the country's president said in a press release on Tuesday.

"The head of state [President Janos Ader]… has today set the national referendum day as October 2, 2016," the press release reads.

In February, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced that his country would hold a referendum on the European Commission's mandatory quotas for the relocation of refugees, under which the country would be obliged to take in 2,300 refugees.

According to the press release, Hungarians will answer the following question during the referendum: "Do you want the European Union to have the right to decide on the mandatory relocation of people who do not have Hungarian citizenship to Hungary, without the consent of the Hungarian Parliament?"

In September 2015, the European Commission called on EU member states to redistribute 160,000 asylum seekers from Africa and the Middle East throughout the bloc over a two-year period in order to tackle a major refugee crisis.