A referendum on revoking some medical and tuition fees was held in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

on 9 March 2008.

Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An ex ...

& Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p899 The proposals would cancel government reforms which introduced doctor visit fees paid per visitation and medical fees paid per number of days spent in hospital as well as tuition fees in higher education. All three were supported by a majority of voters. Prime Minister

Ferenc Gyurcsány Ferenc Gyurcsány (; born 4 June 1961) is a Hungarian entrepreneur and retired politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 2004 to 2009. Prior to that, he held the position of Government of Hungary, Minister of Youth Affairs and Sp ...

stated that the fees would be abolished on 1 April 2008 following the referendum, but that the government had no funds available to replace the income lost for the higher educations institutions and health institutions due to the abolishment of the fees.

Background

The referendum was initiated by opposition party

Fidesz Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance (; ) is a national-conservative political party in Hungary led by Viktor Orbán. It has increasingly identified as illiberal. Originally formed in 1988 under the name of Alliance of Young Democrats () as ...

against the ruling

Hungarian Socialist Party The Hungarian Socialist Party (, ), commonly known by its acronym MSZP (), is a centre-left to left-wing social-democratic and pro-European political party in Hungary. It was founded on 7 October 1989 as a post-communist evolution and one of t ...

(MSZP). The procedure for the referendum started on 23 October 2006, when

Viktor Orbán Viktor Mihály Orbán (; born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian lawyer and politician who has been the 56th prime minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has also led the Fidesz political party since 200 ...

, the leader of Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union announced they would hand in seven questions to the National Electorate Office, three of which (on abolishing

co-payment A patient's copayment or copay is the patient's share of the cost for goods or services rendered, with the other share ("co" = with) paid by the patient's insurance company. The patient's co-payment is usually paid directly to the provider, but is ...

s, daily fees and college tuition fees) were officially approved on 17 December 2007 and called on 24 January 2008. It was assumed likely that the referendum would pass, but it was uncertain whether turnout would be high enough to make it valid; polls indicated about 40% turnout with 80% in favour of rescinding the three reforms. To be valid, the referendum required at least 25% of the about 8 million eligible voters to vote in favour of one of the options.

Questions

Results

Turnout

On the day of the referendum, the following turnout data was reported: Voting was possible between 6:00 and 19:00. Official results showed that the necessary votes were achieved, with a turnout of over 50% (higher than opinion polls had expected).

Aftermath

The MSZP–

SZDSZ The Alliance of Free Democrats – Hungarian Liberal Party (, , SZDSZ ) was a liberal political party in Hungary. The SZDSZ was a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party and of Liberal International. It drew its su ...

coalition suffered a heavy defeat. After Prime Minister

intended to dismiss Health Minister (SZDSZ), the relationship between the two parties permanently deteriorated. On 31 March 2008, various reform-related disagreements between the MSZP and SZDSZ led the SZDSZ leader János Kóka to announce that his party would quit the coalition by 1 May 2008. This also meant that the MSZP formed the first

minority government A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in ...

in Hungary since the end of communism, supported externally by SZDSZ.

References

{{Hungarian elections Fees abolishment referendum, 2008

2008 fees abolishment referendum Healthcare in Hungary Fees