[5] 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.

[12] Speaking on behalf of 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".

[24] 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".

He claimed that the EU migrant quota system in fact is a "non-existent legal concept", and argued that the referendum has a "very bad political message" which weakens the cooperation between the European nations.

"[49] 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 the common European solution,[50] actively participated in the MLP's campaign.

[53] 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 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).

[55] 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 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).

[59][60] Emma Graham-Harrison, a columnist for The Guardian, wrote on 17 September 2016 that the government campaign was characterized by "violent language" and "bitterly contested claims" (including about alleged "no-go zones" throughout Western Europe).

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.

[67] 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.

[73] 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".

[78][79] After President Áder announced the referendum date on 5 July 2016, Jobbik spokesman Ádám Mirkóczki stated that the party opposed the quota system, as it did "every meaningless dictate from Brussels".

[102] 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.

[44] In an interview by The Budapest Times on 17 September 2016, after 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".

[115] 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 the government campaign as "senseless" and "inhuman".

Formerly some intellectuals, including Gáspár Miklós Tamás, criticized her participation in the Fidesz-backed free university and false reports accused that Szél urged the party supporters to vote "No" during the event.

According to 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.

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.

[125] 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 the registration procedure.

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".

[135] Hungarian Socialist Party leader Gyula Molnár stated 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".

"The left has waited for a real victory for the past ten years [since the 2006 national election], and today this has finally happened", and called Orbán to resign as "all prime ministers would do this in any normal and democratic country" after a such "obvious defeat".

Co-chair Ákos Hadházy called the referendum as "destructive", because it "whipped up panic-like fear" among the citizens, while distracting from the "collapsing health care" and the "looting of EU funds at state level".

[...] Afterall the Dialogue wants to focus on a post-Orbán Hungary", he added, and called the other left-wing parties to hold a pre-selection process in the next year to choose the most suitable joint opposition candidates in each constituency.

Schulz expressed Orbán "failed in its attempt to use opposition to the European Union for domestic political purposes" and hailed the majority Hungarian people to stay away from polling stations.

[149] Michael Roth, the German Minister of State for Europe at the Federal Foreign Office said "it's joyful that the referendum ended in failure", and called the Fidesz government's campaign as "oppressive".

Niels Annen, Spokesman of Foreign Affairs of the SPD group in the Bundestag told to Die Welt that "Europe remains divided after the referendum, yet Orbán's defeat is a good news", as he could not gain majority to his migration policy both internationally and domestically.

CSU leading MEP Manfred Weber, however, told Die Welt that the result of referendum can not simply be "swept off the table", as the Hungarian voters clearly demonstrated their opposition to the EU quota system.

According to the article the invalid turnout was irrelevant in political sense: with 98% No vote, Orbán "seeks to claim a larger European role and to present himself as a counterweight to the traditional power brokers in Berlin, Paris and London".