Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban dismissed the European Parliament’s resolution as “a joke”.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban dismissed the European Parliament’s resolution as “a joke”.
The story so far: Hungary can no longer be called a democracy but is now an electoral autocracy, the European Parliament (EP) concluded in a symbolic vote on Thursday. The adopted resolution, with 433 votes in favour, said that Hungary has emerged as a “hybrid regime of electoral autocracy”. According to EP, an electoral autocracy is a form of government where elections are conducted but “respect for democratic norms and standards is absent”.
One hundred and twenty-three votes were counted against the resolution, and 28 abstentions were recorded.
Hungary and democracy
This is not the first time that democracy in Hungary under the rule of populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been questioned.
In 2018, a majority of EP members voted to determine that Hungary was at the risk of breaching the European Union’s (EU) founding values enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty of the European Union. These values include respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, and the rule of law.
Prime Minister Orban is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and registered his fourth victory in Hungary by a landslide margin in April 2022.
What happened in 2018?
The 2018 resolution, approved by 448 votes in favour to 197 against, was the first time the EP had asked the EU Council to act against a member State to “prevent a systemic threat to the Union’s founding values”.
Members of the European Parliament wanted EU countries to initiate the procedure laid down in Article 7(1) of the EU treaty, which states that the Council, after receiving the Parliament’s consent and a majority of four fifths of its members, can determine that a member State is at the “risk of a serious breach” of values outlined in Article 2. The Council is also obliged to hear out the member State in question before making such a determination.
The 2018 resolution noted that the Hungarian authorities did not address the situation, despite their readiness to discuss the legalities of specific measures. “Many concerns remain,” the members of EP stated, pushing for a dialogue in the “preventive phase of the procedure” to avoid possible sanctions.
The 2022 report
Inaction on part of the EU was blamed as one of the reasons for Hungary’s democratic backsliding, the report said. Members of the EP also expressed their displeasure at the Council’s ability to prevent the same. According to the members, Article 7(1) does not require unanimity (although the proposal needs to be supported by one-third of member States and 80% majority of the Council) to identify the breach of EU values. Any further delay in acting under Article 7 would “amount to a breach of the principle of the rule of law by the Council itself”, the EP members said.
“Hungary is not a democracy. It was more urgent than ever for the Parliament to take this stance, considering the alarming rate at which rule of law is backsliding in Hungary,” Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, the EP rapporteur on the situation in Hungary said in a press release.
The concern about Hungary is also triggered by certain responses to the Russia-Ukraine war which has raised various challenges for the bloc. Hungary was one of the only two countries that opposed the EU’s decision to voluntarily lower their natural gas use by 15% between August and March amid threats of further cuts in gas supply from Russia.
Some recommendations made to the European Commission by members of EP are:
- Refrain from approving Hungary’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) programme that allows the Commission to raise funds for the country to implement reforms and investments. EP members recommended holding back approval for this prograame until the country complies with the relevant European Semester recommendations and implements all relevant judgements of the EU Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. This comes at a time when Prime Minister Orban’s government is trying to strike a deal with Brussels on blocked EU funds that were frozen over concerns of corruption, The Guardian reported. Hungary may lose £3.91 billion (€4.64 billion) in Covid recovery funds if it fails to reach a deal with EU by the end of the year.
- Apply the Common Provisions Regulation and the Financial Regulation more strictly to curb the misuse of EU funds for political motives.
- Exclude cohesion programmes that contribute to the misuse of EU funds or breach of the rule of law from funding.
What lies ahead?
Hungary will be given until mid-November to make changes and return to democratic processes in the country, per a Guardian report. Critics, however, fear that the Commission may accept superficial changes in order to defuse conflict over EU funds.
Hungary’s response
Prime Minister Orban dismissed the EP resolution as “a joke”, news agency AP reported.
“I find it funny. The only reason we don’t laugh at it is because we’re bored of it. It’s a boring joke. It’s the third or fourth time they’ve passed a resolution condemning Hungary in the European Parliament. At first, we thought it was significant. But now we see it as a joke,” he was quoted as saying.
He also reiterated his criticism of EU’s sanctions against Russia due to the lack of local energy sources to meet the needs ofEuropean countries. “We are very seriously damaged by these sanctions. They are bad for us, they are painful for us, they cost a lot of money,” he said.