Orban Emerges Stronger Than Ever After His Emergency Rule Ends

(Bloomberg) -- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban may have given up the power to rule by decree, but the Covid-19 pandemic has provided him the ammunition to halt any remaining opposition momentum from an upset in local elections last year.

Citing the virus crisis, Orban is creating special economic zones that will divert taxes away from cities and plans to quadruple the contributions of municipalities to the budget over the next four years. The measures hurt the opposition that unexpectedly won control over half of Hungary’s major cities in October, positions they had hoped to use to build a credible challenge to the premier’s decade-long rule.

Orban’s opponents have been left scrambling with dwindling resources. In the capital, the new leadership is trying to find ways to keep public transportation and garbage collection going and salvage some big-ticket items, including the long-delayed renovation of the iconic Chain Bridge that spans the Danube river.

“The government is trying to make it look as if municipalities can’t perform their tasks, when in fact this is happening because the state is taking away funding,” Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony, the highest-profile opposition politician, said in an interview. “The government can’t accept that there’s political competition.”

Big Lead

Hungarians have widely backed Orban’s pandemic response, buttressing a comfortable poll lead and allowing him to set his sights on a fifth term in 2022. No other head of government in the European Union has been in power for longer, with the exception of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who’s confirmed that she won’t seek a fifth term in 2021.

Six out of ten decided voters support Orban’s Fidesz party, compared with just 11% for the biggest opposition group and 40% for 10 opposition parties combined, according to a Median poll published on news website HVG. The poll was taken between May 28 and June 5, as the first wave of the coronavirus retreated.

That made it relatively risk-free for Orban to end the state of danger, which had allowed him to govern by decree for an indefinite period since late March. The ruling party also framed the move as a sharp rebuke to some critics, including EU leaders, who’d warned that Orban may not return absolute control.

“Those who cried dictatorship home and abroad can now extend their apologies,” Orban wrote on his Facebook page after parliament’s unanimous vote.

New Laws

Still, Orban’s ability to rule has hardly been diminished.

On Tuesday, lawmakers also approved legislation allowing the government to start ruling by decree without parliament’s consent in case of a health emergency. Another billed stripped cities of tax revenue from major corporate investments and channeled them to counties, which are currently all controlled by Fidesz.

The government said the change would allow for a fairer distribution of funds.

“Orban is bleeding municipalities of revenue, which is making things exceedingly hard for the opposition,” said Gabor Gyori, a political analyst at Policy Solutions in Budapest. “After so many years out of power, the opposition needs to show voters they know how to govern.”

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