Hungary’s “coronavirus coup,” explained – By Zack Beauchamp (VOX) / April 15 2020
What’s happened in Hungary over the past few weeks is a case study of how the pandemic threatens democracy. It’s also a warning for the US.
Two weeks ago, Hungary stunned the world. Using coronavirus as a pretext, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán pushed through a law that suspends elections and gives him the authority to rule by decree indefinitely — making him, at least temporarily, a dictator. A far-right firebrand exploiting a global catastrophe to seize near-unlimited control has obviously scary historical parallels; it’s the kind of power grab that got some citizens of Western democracies ruled by right-wing populists worrying about what their leaders might soon do under the circumstances.
In reality, Hungary has not been a democracy for years. But Orbán had cleverly maintained the veneer of a democracy — regular but deeply unfair elections, a formally free press that’s almost entirely controlled by the state, laws passed through a parliament where loyal members of his Fidesz Party control two-thirds of the seats — over what had become, in practice, a system where the opposition was permanently locked out of power while Orbán did what he pleased.
The new law, a so-called “coronavirus coup” enacted in the crisis atmosphere of a pandemic, strips off that veneer. It is an uncharacteristically crude measure, one that makes the more subtle reality of what’s happened to Hungarian democracy quite obvious. Yet even now, the full implications of what he’s been doing during the crisis are poorly understood.
In the two weeks since the law passed, Orbán has used the coronavirus response effort as a pretext to further weaken his political enemies. He has seized funding provided to opposing political parties for their campaigns and re-appropriated it in the name of stimulus. He has taken advantage of the loss in coronavirus advertising revenue to buy up one of the few remaining independent media outlets in Hungary.
The prime minister’s overt power grab is best thought of as a kind of clarifying moment: Rather than establishing a dictatorship anew, it exposes what Hungary had already become.
“Orbán didn’t need any empowerment, as he has a two-third majority in the parliament,” says Ákos Hadházy, a member of parliament from the opposition LMP faction. “The most important changes are not even about the law.”
Continue to article: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/4/15/21193960/coronavirus-covid-19-hungary-orban-trump-populism
