State of Emergency Extended in Hungary Yet Again

Without parliamentary debate and with a majority of 112 votes in favor and 25 against, the Hungary’s ruling party Fidesz has once again extended the state of emergency and the emergency regulations, which will now last until January 1 next year.

The government had previously said on the extension of the emergency that, as the coronavirus epidemic was still ongoing and the number of infected people in Hungary was increasing due to the delta variant, "in order to continue effective control and rapid response to the epidemic," it was necessary to extend the law. According to the government, "the past year and a half has shown that the exceptional and transitional legal framework adopted earlier has served the control of the epidemic well".

At the latest government briefing, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás also claimed that the extension of the emergency "does not imply any restriction on freedom" and will not even affect the opposition primaries, because people can go to the polls in person.

The government has periodically extended the state of emergency during the epidemic, most recently in May. Although the issue is regularly brought before Parliament, the opposition says is not actually needed for this, as the emergency is decreed and lifted by the government under the Constitution, and Parliament is not needed for this.

The opposition has already denied to vote for an extension on the last two occasions. In their view, the government has abused its power in this period, and they cited the example of the reorganization of universities into foundations, the news site telex.hu reports.