Headwinds for orban’s emergency law
The special powers granted to hungarian prime minister viktor orban in the corona crisis met with strong international criticism.
European minister of state michael roth (SPD) brought financial sanctions into play. "It cannot be explained to our people that states finance a large part of their public investments with EU money and then violate the principles of the EU," he said in an interview with "welt". Financial sanctions against hungary should be reviewed.
On monday, the right-wing nationalist orban had himself granted extensive special powers by the parliament in budapest. They could allow him to rule by decree indefinitely. Elections and referendums were not allowed to take place during the state of emergency. The spreading of false news is to be severely punished, so that journalists fear for critical reporting.
Roth called for the current negotiations on the EU budget from 2021 to include the possibility of imposing sanctions by a qualified majority if countries violate EU principles. At the same time, he spoke out in favor of a rule-of-law mechanism initiated by the federal government, in which in the future all EU members are to be reviewed on a regular basis, not just those with suspected violations.
Already on thursday, EU commission president ursula von der leyen had expressed her concern about the hungarian emergency law. The commission will review it, the german politician stressed. Eu budget commissioner johannes hahn told the news magazine "der spiegel": "if the commission’s evaluation shows that orban’s actions contradict our basic principles, we will draw the necessary consequences."When it comes to compliance with the eu treaties, there can be "no discount.
Orban dismissed criticism of his powers as the work of a "brussel bubble. "What is brussel engaged in?? With us," he told state radio on friday. "In doing so, you could save people’s lives by working together. That is what is needed now. I don’t know what kind of people live in the "brussel bubble" sitting," he added.
Meanwhile, hungary joined a declaration in which germany and 16 other eu countries expressed concern about excessive emergency decreases in the face of the corona pandemic. Hungary was not mentioned directly in the declaration, but it was blatantly meant to be. Late thursday evening, the budapest justice ministry published an entry on the government website titled "hungary joins eu member states in declaration below". Below was the declaration of the EU countries in hungarian translation.