Hungary Ruling Party Official Cools Speculation on Court Revamp
Hungary Ruling Party Official Cools Speculation on Court Revamp
(Bloomberg) -- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s new government won’t make it a priority to overhaul the country’s judiciary, sidestepping a hot-button issue that’s at the center of its Polish ideological ally’s conflict with the European Union.
“A change to the judiciary isn’t among priorities,” Gergely Gulyas, a deputy chairman of Orban’s Fidesz party, said in an interview on Tuesday in Budapest. “I can’t promise that we won’t modify anything, but it’s not among the first 10 points on our agenda.”
Orban’s landslide victory in parliamentary elections on Sunday sparked speculation that he would use the mandate to further tighten his grip on independent institutions, media and civil society, continuing with the most extensive centralization of power since communism. Orban’s party was projected to have won a two-thirds parliamentary majority, according to unofficial preliminary results, which would allow the ruling party to change any law, including the constitution, without opposition support.
No Hurry
Fidesz is in no hurry to use its renewed powers to change a constitution it had enacted in 2011, Gulyas said. He said raising family subsidies, increasing the minimum wages, creating jobs and reversing deteriorating demographic trends would be among the priorities.
Across eastern Europe, judges and prosecutors are in the line of fire as populist leaders seek to assert control over the judiciary. Orban has led the way since 2010, including by ousting the chief justice of the supreme court, stacking the Constitutional Court with allies and pushing some justices into retirement. The Polish government has gone further, giving the justice minister a blank check to fire judges.
The European Commission recommended last year to initiate a process that could lead to the suspension of Poland’s voting rights in the EU because of rule-of-law concerns. The European Parliament is currently debating whether to do the same for Hungary for its alleged democratic backsliding, which has also included a crackdown on civil society.
In a press conference on Tuesday, the freshly re-elected Orban said he planned big changes to the government, without elaborating. His party said on Monday that it would pass new restrictions on civil society groups seen as supporting “illegal” immigration as one of its first orders of business.
To contact the reporter on this story: Marton Eder in Budapest at meder4@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ven Ram at vram1@bloomberg.net, Zoltan Simon, Balazs Penz
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