The Council of Europe launches a monitoring procedure against Hungary
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe voted for, to subject Hungary to a full-scale monitoring procedure, due to rule of law problems. A similar monitoring process is currently taking place in 10 countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Poland, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine (that is, most of the subjects are not EU countries, but members of the Council of Europe).
Among the problems arising in the General Assembly related to Hungary were the too broad application of the two-thirds laws, and thus the limitation of pluralism; electoral laws that do not provide equal opportunities; undermining the independence of the judiciary and the media; and the state of emergency that has been continuously valid since 2020.
The observation means that the expert practice of the Council of Europe is to visit Hungary continuously, in cooperation with various authorities, and to evaluate how well it respects the commitments of the Council of Europe.
Fidesz responded by saying that there is a political witch hunt against Hungary and that the international left is attacking Hungary based on untruths. And the reason for this is that “the government pursues a successful, Christian-democratic policy, does not give in on the issue of illegal migration and demands a review of the sanctions.”