Hungarian citizenship vote fails

Hungary's new prime minister looked to have scored a major victory today when the opposition failed to garner enough votes to pass a referendum giving citizenship to millions of Hungarians abroad. Socialist prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany's campaign for a "No" in the referendum, which aimed to embrace Hungarians living abroad after the 1920 carve-up of the Austro-Hungarian empire, appeared set to succeed because of a low turnout. He insisted that he had won "without joy" and criticised the right wing opposition Fidesz party for playing with the feelings of the Hungarian nation. "I heard the voters say no to emotion, partiality and to a fruitless looking to the past and to national and social populism," Gyurcsany told a journalists after the polls closed. Final turnout was just over 37 per cent, well below the threshold of 50 per cent to make the referendum binding.