Christ in Hungary

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Christ in Hungary

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Hungary moving from democracy to authoritarian rule...

Hungary turns away from democracy
January 10, 2012 - Hungary has seen a stunning consolidation of power under President Orban. A new Constitution that took effect Jan. 1 appears to confirm a move toward more authoritarian rule.

By some estimates, Hungary under Prime Minister Viktor Orban is not just exiting the house of democracy. It has already left the building. In the past year, Hungary has undergone an extraordinary consolidation of power by President Orban. No other nation in Europe has made such sweeping and overnight change in its basic laws and approach, and with little public consultation. The culminating event came Jan. 1 with a new Constitution that boldly favors the ruling party and has many European leaders shaking their heads. Coming at a time of economic crisis, the sudden shift is a challenge for democracy and rule of law in the heart of Europe, analysts say. The protests of tens of thousands in Budapest Jan. 2 over the Constitution date to last March, when voters received an official questionnaire.

Orban, with a supermajority in parliament, was preparing to rewrite the nation's governing document. Enclosed were 12 questions seeking citizen feedback. Should a constitution protect future generations and family values? One asked about life prison sentences, another about biodiversity. None dealt with basic questions about how power is ordered and checked in a modern democracy. In the end, it didn't matter. Two weeks after the mailing, a single-draft constitution emerged, written on an iPad, as the author – a member of the ruling Fidesz party – bragged. By April 19, without debate on any other draft, the parliament ratified a radical new charter, saying it would go into effect Jan. 1 as something demanded by the people.

The new document "transformed the legal landscape to remove checks on the power of the government and put virtually all power into the hands of the current governing party," says Kim Lane Scheppele, an expert on comparative constitutions at Princeton University in New Jer*sey who spent four years in Budapest as a legal adviser. "It violates about all the rules of a modern constitution.... It's a hit-and-run constitution. It went through with such speed … and misrepresentation, and so little public understanding, that most Hungarians have no awareness of what has happened to them."

Those changes went largely unnoticed last spring when Hungary, which held the rotating presidency of the European Union, was simultaneously implementing harsh media laws requiring "balance" in reporting. Since then, journalists in Budapest have gone on hunger strikes, the constitutional preamble was written to recognize the role of Christianity in preserving the nation, and gypsies and minorities have been attacked. Orban replaced the director of the national theater with a playwright who is professedly anti-Semitic and hails from the Jobbik party, which won 17 percent of the 2010 vote.

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