MAGYAR KÉTFARKÚ KUTYA PÁRT v. HUNGARY JUDGMENT 3 financed through micro-donations from private individuals in the amount of some 33,000,000 Hungarian forints (HUF) (approximately 100,000 euros (EUR)). The campaign included the display of billboards caricaturing the government’s own media campaign with slogans such as “Feel free to come to Hungary, we already work in England!” 10. On 22 September 2015 the European Union’s interior ministers meeting in the Justice and Home Affairs Council approved a plan to relocate 120,000 asylum seekers over two years from the frontline States Italy and Greece to all other EU countries. Under the plan, Hungary was to accept 1,294 persons from other member States. 11. On 24 February 2016 the Prime Minister of Hungary announced that the Hungarian government would hold a referendum on whether to accept the European Union’s proposed mandatory quotas for relocating migrants. On the same day the government submitted for approval before the National Election Commission (NEC) the following question to be put to a referendum: “Do you want the European Union to be entitled to order the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary without Parliament’s consent?” 12. On 29 February 2016 the NEC, by nine votes to three, approved the question. On 5 May 2016, after examining the legal challenges, the Kúria (the Hungarian supreme court) authorised the holding of the referendum. 13. The National Assembly officially approved the referendum initiated by the government on 10 May 2016. The initiative was approved with 136 votes being cast in favour by the parliamentary majority and the MPs of the opposition party Jobbik, with five votes against; the remaining fifty-three MPs boycotted the session. On 21 June 2016 the Constitutional Court rejected all the appeals against the plan to hold the referendum. It was announced that the referendum would take place on 2 October 2016. 14. Opposition groups including political parties and civil-society actors considered that the question put to a referendum deliberately misrepresented EU policies, since in their view no project existed involving mandatory quotas for the relocation of migrants. They voiced the opinion that the referendum was merely an instrument of government propaganda and did not provide voters with a real choice between real alternatives, and that its tendentious wording served no other purpose than to exacerbate the controversy over migration. 15. The MKKP urged its supporters to participate in the referendum but to cast an invalid ballot. Its main reason for advocating an invalid vote was that the referendum constituted in essence an abuse of a democratic legal institution and that, while boycotting was a passive rejection of the referendum, an invalid vote sent a clear message denouncing its lack of legitimacy in an active manner. Furthermore, according to the announcement posted on the MKKP’s website calling on voters to cast