(CN) — In Hungary, the prime minister now rules by decree to fight the coronavirus pandemic. But he's using his new unfettered powers to divert funds away from rival politicians, ban elections, impose military supervision over hospitals and companies, threaten people deemed to be spreading falsehoods about the coronavirus crisis with prison, push through pet projects and ban transgender people from changing their sex on birth certificates.
Does that sound like a dictatorship has arisen in the middle of the European Union? Many believe that's exactly what Hungary has become under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a far-right politician who was controversial well before the coronavirus pandemic.
At the end of March, the Hungarian parliament, controlled by Orbán's Fidesz party, passed a law – with no end date – that gives the prime minister sweeping powers to fight the pandemic. Newspaper columnists, academics and watchdog groups warned that Orbán – whom some refer to as “Viktator” – truly had become a dictator.
“Now, with the emergency measures, I would say Hungary is not a democracy anymore,” said Sophie Pornschlegel, a senior policy analyst at the European Policy Centre, a Brussels-based think tank, in a telephone interview. "You have a parliament dominated by the ruling party and a leader that rules by decree; at the same time, freedom of the press or academic freedoms are hugely curtailed."
In Europe, it's not just Hungary where democracy is under assault. Poland's right-wing nationalist government is using the pandemic to pass controversial laws and consolidate power too, analysts say.
This week, the Polish parliament tried to pass laws to completely ban abortions and bar sex education in schools. In the past, attempts to pass similar laws sparked large-scale protests, but under the country's lockdown large gatherings are banned. Regardless, protesters have taken to the streets in Warsaw, all the while trying to respect “physical distancing” requirements even as police warned they could be arrested. Parliament chose to defer a final vote on the divisive abortion bill Thursday.
Poland is also pushing ahead with a May 10 presidential election despite the pandemic and critics argue the ruling Law and Justice party hopes to win by taking advantage of the crisis. For instance, voters over the age of 60 will be allowed to cast mail-in ballots while younger people will need to vote in person, which may suppress turnout if people are afraid of getting infected at the polls.
Conveniently for Law and Justice, the party enjoys a lot of support among older voters. On Thursday, the government also proposed extending President Andrzej Duda's term by two years to avoid holding the election.
Hungary, though, is the most troubling example of how the pandemic is being used to consolidate power and undermine democracy, experts say.
“The [emergency] law gives Orbán the power to overturn any law, reverse any legal principle and change any regulation as long as the (indefinite) emergency continues,” wrote Kim Lane Scheppele, a professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University and an expert on Hungary. “No other EU country has anything remotely like this.”
"The power is unlimited in time – it is, in practice, indefinite until either Orbán calls off the emergency or the Parliament enacts another law to withdraw the power,” she said in an email to Courthouse News. “Given that Orbán controls the Parliament, the reversal of this grant of power is unlikely – and even more unlikely if his support starts to fade because he only needs 1/3 of the Parliament behind him to block any new law.”
The Hungarian government rejects the criticism.
“Those voicing unfounded claims about our management of this crisis threatening democracy and the rule of law in Hungary are fighting an imaginary enemy,” the government said in an email to Courthouse News. “False claims of a power grab in Hungary are just that. Such insinuations are not only incorrect but defamatory, and impede the government’s efforts in slowing down the spread of the coronavirus.”