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Freedom House: ‘Hungary No Longer Democracy’

By Stefan J. Bos, reporting from Budapest, Hungary

(Worthy News) – A leading democracy watchdog has suggested that Hungary has become the first non-democratic European Union member state, prompting an angry reaction from the government. Washington-based Freedom House also warned that Poland is heading towards the same direction.

Freedom House cited  emergency measures that will allow Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a populist, to rule by decree indefinitely.  As part of the measures, journalists could face up to five years imprisonment if authorities consider their reports as spreading “fake news” about the current coronavirus pandemic. Procedures have already begun against scores of people for spreading rumors, authorities said this week.

Freedom House, which researches democracy, political freedom, and human rights, identified “a stunning democratic breakdown” in Central European and Central Asian governments in its “Nations in Transit 2020” report. The analysis of the non-governmental advocacy group stressed that there are fewer democracies in the 29-country European region today than at any point since the annual report began in 1995.

Freedom House singled out Hungary’s decline as “the most precipitous ever tracked” by the group. “Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government in Hungary has similarly dropped any pretense of respecting democratic institutions.” It claimed that after “centralizing power” and “tilting the electoral playing field,” he took over “much of the media,” and harassed critical civil society organizations since 2010. Last year he also moved “to consolidate control over new areas of public life, including education and the arts,” it added.

The group alleged that this year’s adoption of the so-called ‘coronavirus law’ enables the government to rule by decree indefinitely. It also further exposed the “undemocratic character of Orbán’s regime.” However, the pressure was mounting on the European Union to take action. “Neither Poland nor Hungary has faced repercussions for damaging the rule of law at home,” Freedom House said.

The report claimed that Poland, whose governing Law and Justice Party has limited powers in Polish courts, is following Hungary’s example. Poland, it said, is heading from a functioning democracy to “single-party, authoritarian rule.”

Hungary’s government rejected the accusations. “Freedom House owes its existence to the liberal leadership and the support of US financier George Soros,” said the head of Prime Minister Orbán’s office. The official, Gergely Gulyás, added that Freedom House “is not a judge of but a participant in Hungarian political debates on the side of the opposition.” Ahead of next week’s European Parliament debate about Hungary, he suggested that the EU should end the “Brussels intrigue.” Instead, he said, it would be “desirable if efforts were focused on Hungary receiving as much funding as possible.”

Separately, Orbán wrote an angry letter to leaders of his own political grouping in the European Parliament, the center-right European People’s Party (EPP). He urged EPP President Donald Tusk to apologize for “slanderous accusations, which were refuted by the European Commission,” the EU’s executive. Tusk told Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine media that Carl Schmitt, a prominent legal scholar for the Nazis, would be “proud” of Orbán.

Prime Minister Orbán also spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump this week, who he considers an ally, about Hungary’s measures to tackle the pandemic. While Trump has expressed admiration for Orbán, the U.S. has criticized aspects of Hungary’s media policies.