Hungarian lawmakers have scrapped an unpopular Sunday shopping ban implemented by Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s administration last year, as the government moves to pre-empt an opposition referendum to avoid a ballot-box defeat.
Lawmakers voted 163 for and two against, with 11 abstentions, to lift the ban that barred all but a few shops from opening on Sundays, according to a tally posted on the parliament’s website on Tuesday.
The Sunday shopping ban came to the fore last week, after Hungary’s Supreme Court approved an opposition-party request to hold a referendum on the ban, which took effect in March of last year.
More than two thirds opposed the ban, an Ipsos poll published on 4 December showed.
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