24 March 2020
The Hungarian government wants the power to rule by decree. There is a danger the powers may stay in place indefinitely.
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"The Hungarian parliament is due to consider a draft law that would keep the decrees issued under the state of emergency in force until further notice.
The draft law would ban by-elections and referenda, as well as increase penalties for breaking the quarantine and spreading misinformation.
The draft text, which doesn’t foresee a role for the parliament, was proposed late on on Friday (20 March) by Judit Varga, justice minister of the ruling right-wing Fidesz party.
Currently, decrees issued during the emergency need parliamentary approval to stay in force after 15 days.
Under the proposed law, dubbed the ‘Enabling Act’, spreading “false fact or true facts distorted in a way” that could “impede or thwart” the effectiveness of defence measures against the coronavirus becomes punishable of 1 to 5 years of imprisonment."
Hungary’s state of emergency law is a ‘blank cheque’ to Orban, critics say (Euractiv, link)
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