The Orbán government has been given unlimited opportunities to restrict Hungary
Erika Gulyás;
emergency; Orbán government; restriction;
2022-05-26 20:57:00
There are currently two emergencies in Hungary, according to experts who say in Népszava, both of them give the government an unjustified, but equally unlimited, opportunity to change legislation and restrict fundamental rights.
– The decrees on the ending epidemic will no longer be in force from 1 June, but there is no obstacle to the government creating new rules or re-adopting existing regulations with parliament for the new war emergency. The only brake that the country’s leaders must adhere to at all times is that the right to human dignity, life and fair trial cannot be restricted, stressed Daniel Karsai.
The constitutional lawyer considers the amendment of the Basic Law on Tuesday unjustified, because it still contains two extraordinary legal orders related to the war situation. The human rights lawyer also reminded that there was no extraordinary legal order during the Balkan war, yet Hungary had solved the necessary tasks due to the fighting. According to Dániel Karsai, therefore, no new legislation is needed, but real logistical tasks must be performed, which do not require emergency authorization. And if there is no solution at the moment that would legally make decisions that can be made in half a day, because the government is responsible, as it has 12 years to make such decisions.
– this is what Emese Pásztor told our paper. The biggest problem with successive emergency packages is that the government has no decree at all to review their constitutionality, because the Constitutional Court no longer provides an effective counterweight, according to the head of the Society for Freedoms (HCLU) political freedoms project. An employee of the HCLU also pointed out that such emergency powers may make sense in parliamentary democracies where the opposition can prevent certain laws from being passed in parliament, thus limiting the government’s room for maneuver. The maintenance of the capacity to govern is temporarily modified by decree governance, but in Hungary there is no justification for such a legal solution due to the two-thirds parliamentary majority of the governing parties. According to Emese Shepherd
During the epidemic emergency, the Orbán government took a series of measures restricting fundamental rights, increased the deadline for responding to data requests in the public interest, and restricted the right of assembly and the right to strike. The staff of the HCLU expects a similar continuation. The promised economic protection measures are also said to ease some employment rules, from which we can conclude that the bans on dismissal will be lifted, for example in health care and law enforcement, but the details are not yet known.
“There is only a political explanation for the re-introduction of the extraordinary legal order,” said Richard the Great of St. Petersburg. The constitutional lawyer and political scientist also pointed out that the parliamentary debate takes place in public, while government meetings are closed, the plans or opinions expressed cannot be made public. According to the declaration of a state of emergency, it is “overinsurance” by the authorities, with which it wants to acquire more and more rights to restrict citizens. It indicates that we are still going into this system, the expert summed up.