Hungary's nationalist government has granted Prime Minister Viktor Orban indefinite, unlimited powers amid the coronavirus crisis that he has promised to give back, “when this emergency ends.”
NPR reports: “Those powers include sidelining parliament and giving Orban the power to rule by decree indefinitely. The law would punish those who spread false information about the pandemic with up to five years in prison. … critics insist that Orban is using the pandemic to grab power. ‘An indefinite and uncontrolled state of emergency cannot guarantee that the basic principles of democracy will be observed,' Council of Europe Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric wrote to Orban on March 24.”
