The obvious rule of law breaches within the recent constitutional reform proposals of PM Magyar’s (Tisza/EPP) new Hungarian government are raising the alarms not only among the right-wing opposition parties, but also left-liberal NGOs, many of whom were among the biggest supporters of Magyar’s campaign.
After Amnesty International called out the blatantly undemocratic proposal to forcibly remove the President of the Republic without a fair trial and the consent of the Constitutional Court, one of Hungary’s oldest human rights watchdogs voiced its concerns as well.
According to TASZ (Hungarian Civil Liberties Union), Magyar’s proposal to retroactively limit the mandate of members of parliament to 12 years should be taken out of the recently submitted reform package, as it strips people of fundamental rights, creates an unequal political landscape, and lacks the public support and awareness needed to implement such a significant change.
While the government argues that the proposal is meant to “ensure the renewal” of Parliament, there is no doubt that its real goal is to eliminate nearly all well-known veteran politicians from the opposition’s ranks, killing effective political debate in the process. While the ruling Tisza party, founded just two years ago, would be unaffected by the change, both national conservative opposition parties (Fidesz and Mi Hazánk) would be forced to replace about half of their MPs with inexperienced politicians.
“While everyone in the Tisza faction is a newbie, the planned restriction affects a significant part of the largest opposition party, Fidesz,” TASZ wrote. What’s more, this amendment would restrict people’s fundamental right to stand for parliamentary elections, as well as voters’ right to freely choose their representatives, the watchdog warned.
Not to mention that retroactive legislation is against every democratic principle. It wouldn’t be the first time, though, as the Magyar government already adopted a constitutional change to limit prime ministers’ mandate to two terms, retroactively, thereby making sure that former PM Viktor Orbán could never be reelected.
According to TASZ, the “timing of the proposal is clearly problematic, because the question does not require urgent legislation, therefore it should not be adopted through a fast-tracked constitutional amendment, but decided within the framework of a subsequent, thorough constitutional process.”
The NGO added that the five days given by the government for public consultation—instead of the minimum eight days specified in law—was not nearly enough to get appropriate feedback. What’s more, most of the country is not even aware of what’s being planned, as Tisza did not bring up this proposal during the electoral campaign and thus didn’t get a democratic mandate for it either.
“The Constitution should be the limit of power, not its instrument,” TASZ added, asking the government to reconsider.
Tamás Orbán is a political journalist for europeanconservative.com, based in Brussels. Born in Transylvania, he studied history and international relations in Kolozsvár, and worked for several political research institutes in Budapest. His interests include current affairs, social movements, geopolitics, and Central European security. On Twitter, he is @TamasOrbanEC.
