Orban Ceding Rule-by-Decree in Hungary Leaves Agenda Intact
Orban Moves to Give Up Sole Power in Hungary With Agenda Intact
(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Viktor Orban moved toward giving up his right to rule Hungary indefinitely by decree, which some critics had warned would transform the country into a de facto dictatorship.
The government will submit a bill to parliament on Tuesday to end the regime that the premier’s allies approved in March, when they argued that he needed unrestrained powers to deal with the coronavirus crisis. The bill’s approval is expected to end the state of danger, which made the decree rule possible, on June 20, Justice Minister Judit Varga said.
Orban’s emergency powers stoked concern over democratic backsliding from the European Union’s executive because it didn’t have a sunset clause. The administration in Budapest was quick to call its pledge to withdraw it as proof that its critics were wrong.
“We expect that those who attacked us with untrue political allegations ask for an apology because instead of solidarity in the fight” against the virus “they orchestrated a campaign of defamation,” Varga said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
Hungary, which joined the EU in 2004, became the first member of the trading bloc to lose its status as a democracy this month in an annual survey of countries by Freedom House, a rights watchdog based in Washington D.C. Hungary is now classified as a “hybrid regime” between a democracy and an autocracy.
Decisions Made
While Orban and his aides have rejected accusations that the emergency powers were a violation of the EU’s democratic norms, the bloc continues to probe whether the government is upholding the rule of law. Many of the initiatives that the prime minister passed via decrees may also remain in effect.
They include the halving of financial support for political parties and seizing tax revenue in some cities, policies that disproportionately hurt the opposition and the municipalities it controls. Orban also retains a two-thirds parliamentary supermajority, allowing his ruling party to unilaterally pass or change any law.
“Surrendering rule-by-decree is a great communications ploy by Orban,” said Peter Kreko, managing director of Political Capital, a research institute in Budapest. “In reality it’s just a technical question. The past two months have shown that it’s not the main engine behind Hungary’s increasingly rapid slide toward authoritarianism.”
Since March 30, when parliament green-lighted the decree regime, ruling-party lawmakers have approved a range of measures to further Orban’s self-styled illiberal agenda. They included laws criminalizing the “distortion” of facts -- which triggered more than 100 police investigations -- and banning legal gender change. The government has also given away state property, including a villa, to the premier’s allies.
Lorinc Meszaros, a boyhood friend of Orban whom opposition parties accuse of managing business interests on the prime minister’s behalf, has been particularly favored.
A government entity bought Meszaros’s unprofitable coal plant, which the cabinet estimated needed a $1 billion overhaul. And a contract for a $2 billion Chinese-backed rail development project connecting Budapest and Belgrade -- which had been criticized for its lack of transparency and cost -- was restricted as classified information for 10 years.
Meszaros’s company is part of the consortium building it. Orban has denied having business links with Meszaros.
“There’s been a raft of measures rammed through in the past two months relating to corruption and the stripping of rights,” opposition lawmaker Bernadett Szel told a parliamentary committee on Monday.
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